


A Cat Is A Cat

by UkiTheMaid



Series: A Cat Is A Cat [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animal Ears, Cliche, Developing Relationship, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-18
Updated: 2012-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-31 08:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/342181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UkiTheMaid/pseuds/UkiTheMaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU inspired by the art from the FABULOUS flashyredturk at tumblr. Bro Strider is a half-human, half-cat 'stray', and Dad Egbert is 'fortunate' enough to bring him inside his house. He doesn't know what he's getting into though. EDIT: Last chapter has been fixed and now it's actually complete. Sorry about that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alleyways And Raw Meat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flashyredturk](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=flashyredturk).



> So, I have no idea what I'm doing here. This idea sparked inside my brain after looking at all the wonbderful Bro + Dad art down at flashyredturk's tumblr. And since my friends down at tumblr told me I should do this...
> 
> I have no idea how many chapter this thing will have. This was literally a spur of the moment thing, so, yeah. I hope you guys enjoy this crazy journey though.

“You should get yourself a pet.”  
“Your life’s too empty! You need a pet to keep you company!”  
“Have you ever considered adopting a cat or a dog?”

For the past months, day in, day out, that was all Mr. Egbert heard. People urging him to get some manner of animal companion to, supposedly, ‘fill the void’ in his life. He tried and tried to explain that just because he lived all by himself that didn’t mean his life was lacking or that he felt lonely.

No one seemed to listen to him though.

At some point, he just chose to ignore those ‘advices’. He was doing fine on his own.

But that aspect of his life was soon to change.

It was a night of heavy rain and strong wind. Egbert’s car was at the garage, being fixed. Something about a busted engine and a heavily damaged radiator. He had a feeling he would have to say goodbye to half of his monthly payment to cover that.

That was the reason why he was rushing down the street, umbrella in one hand – not that it was working for much – and suitcase in the other. He hated that he had to stay at the office until almost 10PM, and hated even more the fact that the bus he took didn’t stop anywhere near his house. There were good 10 blocks until he could reach it, and half-way his shoes and socks were soaked, and his pants were dripping. With a sigh, he began walking slower. Not much of appoint to run now that he was that wet. At least his suitcase was more or less impervious to water, so his paperwork would stay undamaged.

While crossing an alleyway, he could swear that he saw something by the corner of his eye. For a moment, he couldn’t really believe in what he _thought_ he saw. It couldn’t be it.

Not being able to simply ignore it and walk away, he stepped back to face the alley, and his eyes went wide when his suspicions were confirmed: there was, indeed, someone lying there on alleyway, soaking wet and face buried on the ground.

In a rush, he walked towards the seemingly unconscious figure lying there. Turning the body over showed it was a young man, wearing a hoodie, baggy trousers and sneakers. He was still quite alive, much to Egbert’s relief, but placing a hand over that stranger’s forehead told him almost instantly that the poor guy was burning in fever. God only knew for how long that guy had been there, passed out and under the rain.

Ignoring the rain for a while, he closed his umbrella, hanging it on his arm, so then he could carry that guy to his house. He could think about calling a hospital or something after that. At least he had to get that fellow out of the rain.

It took a little longer to cross those remaining five blocks with the extra weight, but soon enough he reached the front door of his house. Sure unlocking the door and opening it was a bit of a chore, but he managed to do it.

When inside, he placed the stranger on the couch and sighed, hands crossed in front of his chest. Now, just what was he going to do with that guy anyway? Well, first things first: he had to get him at least partially out of those wet clothes. So, taking off that hoodie and whatever was under it was the best option, for now. He also needed to get himself out of his own dampened clothes, and take a warm shower.

Pulling down the hood that was covering the guy’s head, Egbert couldn’t help but stare in wide-eyes surprise at what he uncovered. That guy… he had cat ears.

There was a long pause as he just simply stood there, looking at those ears and wondering just what he got himself into, because he clearly couldn’t call the hospital on that guy now, since they certainly would treat him as a sort of freak. And now he just noticed how that guy’s nails were way too sharp.

Shaking his head to dismiss his thoughts for a while, Egbert decided he was going to think about the ramifications of his decisions later on. Right now he was just going to try and help that guy out. He finished taking off the hoodie, and the white shirt underneath it. He wasn’t going to do anything about those pants, because things were already quite awkward as they were.

Folding those wet clothes, he carried those with him upstairs, to put them on the laundry basket in the bathroom. He took off his clothes and took his well deserved warm shower. While showering, he was trying to figure out just what to do. And hospital was out of question, but then, could he just give normal ‘human’ medicine to that guy? Maybe he would have a bad reaction to it… And was him always like that or did something turned him into a half-cat… thing? Was he really going to have to take care of him for long?

It was definitely frustrating thinking about all these things. And he sure wasn’t going to figure those out in a minute or two. The best course action, for the time being, was to leave that guy be, and see what happens. Maybe being out of the rain would help with his fever subduing or something. Or at least that’s what Egbert hoped for. If not, then he would be forced to take that guy somewhere, and sure enough all hell would break loose if he did so.

He stepped out of the shower, dried himself and went to the bedroom. He put on his pajamas and grabbed a blanket before going downstairs again. The other man was still sleeping like a rock when he got to the living room. Egbert wondered just how he ended up lying in some alley like that, as he covered the guy with the blanket. That was all he could do for now.

Pretty much exhausted from work, he didn’t even eat anything. He just wanted to lie down on his bed and sort all those thoughts he was having. Something told him he wasn’t going to fall asleep that soon.

Off to his bedroom he went, and, unexpectedly, his tiredness was way beyond his level of worry, as he started slumbering just a few minutes after lying down.

For hours, the house stayed in complete silence, aside from the clicking of clocks and the soft humming of the refrigerator in the kitchen, with everything being really still.

That is, until Egbert’s unexpected ‘visitor’ began to wake up.

He shifted on the couch, grunting and sniffling. Then, his eyes started to open very slowly, but then shot open when he found himself at an unfamiliar place.

Sitting up straight almost in one go, that soon proved to be a very unwise move, as his head was banging from the imminent cold that was going to hit him soon. He laid down again, rubbing his burning forehead.

_Ugh… I feel like shit… Where am I?_ He thought to himself. Last thing he remembered was starving and walking under the rain around that neighborhood, and then passing out. Looking around, he could see that he was in a pretty regular and bare living room. Quite boring, in his opinion.

But, well, he was indoors. That sure beat wandering in the rain and dying from pneumonia or something. Apparently someone was nice enough to help him out.

Suddenly, he realized his hoodie was nowhere to be seen. OK, however did that wasn’t freaked out by his cat bits. Or, wasn’t freaked out enough to kick him out. It could go either way. But it was a relief either way. He took the time to check if all his things were still on his sylladex, and they were all intact. That was good too.

_… I’m starving._ Was the only thing crossing his mind. It felt like eons since he ate any decent food. And, well, if this was a house, it had to have food, right?

Carefully, he sat up, throwing the blanket aside. He was going to worry about being terribly sick later. He had to fill his stomach with something, anything. He got up and was able to spot the kitchen from where he was standing. He walked there and couldn’t help but smile when his eyes rested on the refrigerator.

Walking to it with almost soundless steps, he opened it up, and grinned widely when he saw that it was stuffed with food.

_Fucking jackpot._ He thought to himself as he reached inside and pulled out a carton of milk. Luckily, it was almost full. Not even bothering to look for a cup, he started gulping it down directly from the box. Until it was completely empty.

He took a second look inside the refrigerator, trying to find something else, and was more than happy to find a rather tasty looking beef in a Tupperware, just waiting for him. He picked it up and closed the fridge. He opened the recipient, took the piece of meat from it and started to eat. Sure it could use a little bit heating up, but he couldn’t care less at the moment. He was so damn famished that he didn’t have time to think of such trivialities.

When he was done with the beef, he just put the Tupperware somewhere on the sink and went back to the living room. He would look for more food, if his head wasn’t weighting so much.

Lying down again, he let out a sigh, covering himself with the blanket again. Whoever helped him out was a true life-saver, and he was sure to return the favor, somehow.

But now, all he wanted to do was to rest. The cold coming his way seemed quite nasty, and he was sure that he was going to wake up feeling even more terrible the next day.


	2. Not All The Human, But Not All The Feline Either

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is, hm, really uneventful, but I have to do mosdt of the exposition now, so then things can move a tad bit faster in the future. Besides, this is classified as 'slice of life' for a reason.

The next morning came around in the always uneventful fashion it always did. Around 7AM, an alarm clock cut through the silence of Egbert’s bedroom. He woke up slowly, rubbing his eyes with one hand and feeling around for the clock to turn off the alarm with the other. It was Friday and, naturally, he had work again that day.

When the alarm was off, he stretched his arms and legs, sitting up and getting off the bed. He was glad that, apparently, it wasn’t going to rain that day, so he wouldn’t have to struggle through it again.

And speaking of rain…

He was reminded of the guy downstairs, and wondered if he was still sleeping. He stepped out of his bedroom and walked downstairs as silently as he could.

Still sound asleep.

It was a bit of a relief though. He didn’t want to deal with that before going to work, even if he was still worried about the other man’s condition, health wise. He walked across the living room and into the kitchen, and the moment he walked in he saw the empty milk carton and Tupperware sitting on the sink. So, a midnight snack happened. Well, couldn’t really blame the guy.

Even if that beef was going to be his dinner that day. And that he liked milk on his coffee in the morning.

With a sigh, Egbert went to make his coffee, so then he could start his morning properly. While he waited for the water to boil, he went back to the living room briefly, standing next to the couch and looking down. He put a hand on the other man’s forehead and, he was still pretty warm, but not burning like the night before. His breathing sure sounded heavier though, as if his lungs were highly obstructed.

When he squirmed on the couch, Egbert instantly took his hand from his forehead, standing by the couch nervously and the other man opened his eyes slowly, trying to adapt them to the light inside the room.

 _These guy’s eyes… they are red._ Egbert thought to himself, head tilting to the side. Just when he thought things couldn’t get any stranger.

There was a small groan from the man lying on the couch as he stretched his arms, looking at Egbert.

“Hmm… Good morning?” Was all he could say in response to being stared at like that.

“So… you are the guy I have to thank for saving my ass?” The stranger tried a smile, but it just came out awkwardly, especially with his reddened nose and visibly tired eyes.

“It was… it wasn’t that big of a deal. You don’t need to thank me. I just did what anyone would.” Egbert said, arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Are you fucking kidding? Not freaking out about this is the biggest favor you could have ever done to me.” He said, pointing to his ears.

“Well that… Oh God! The water!” Egbert was suddenly reminded of the water boiling and rushed into the kitchen to put out the fire. With a sigh of relief, he went back to the living room. The coffee could wait a little bit.

“So… what’s your name anyway?” The stranger asked before sniffing and clearing his somewhat sore throat.

“Ah, I’m Egbert.” He answered, scratching his arm. “What about you?”

“Strider. Really now, thanks a lot Egbert. I really thought I was a goner back there.” Strider stretched again. That couch was so unbelievably comfy. At least to him.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you end up in that alleyway?” Egbert knew that he would have time to ask all the questions when he came back from work later that day, but he had to admit he was curious to know about that guy’s origins.

“Not much of a mystery behind it. I’ve always been a, you know, ‘stray’, but Lady Luck decided to give me the middle finger these past two weeks.” Strider just shrugged. He was used to being unlucky, but those past days were a living hell.

“I see…” That was far from the detailed explanation Egbert was expecting, but he was guessing that Strider wasn’t going to be an open up just like that. “Well, you can stay here for a while. I mean, I guess until you recover. It might take a while though, because I don’t think giving you human medicine is a good id… Wait! I don’t mean that you aren’t human! I’m just saying… you know…” He was suddenly flustered by his choice of words. That guy was going to hate him now.

He was surprised to hear a chuckle though.

“Please, I was called far worse things than ‘non-human’, believe me. And, I never really took any kind of medicine, so I really can’t tell.” Strider had to admit it was fun to see that guy get so embarrassed so quickly. He was sure to take a note of that. For future reference. “But I wouldn’t worry if I were you. I’ll be better on my own, in no time.”

“Ah, OK. And sorry again.” That was definitely his cue to start getting ready for work. “I… See, I stay out of home almost all day, working. Are you going to be fine on your own?”

“Did you even listen to what I just told you? Stop worrying. I’ll be fine.” Strider groaned to himself, scratching his back. “Go do whatever the fuck you do in your day by day life.”

“Hmm… Alright then.” Egbert thought that it was better to skip the coffee part of his morning entirely, and slightly in a rush went to his bedroom to change into his suit. He had no idea what he was going to do when he came back from work. Dealing with that guy was sure to make him feel really uncomfortable, especially if he kept things slipping like he did a few moments ago.

Sighing, he finished dressing and picked up his suit. He was going to grab a coffee on his way to the office or something. When back downstairs, he saw that Strider was sitting up, but still had the blanket covering the lower half of his body.

“I’m… hmm… going now. If you get hungry I guess there’s still stuff that you can eat?” Egbert said, standing near the front door. He wasn’t sure if he had anything that could be eaten by a ‘half-cat’ person. “And I suppose I should bring you more milk.”

“Sorry about eating your stuff. Is just that I was starving.” Strider said, not really showing much embarrassment on his face. In fact, he almost had a quite mischievous smile on his lips.

“It’s OK. Anh, see you later I guess?” It was really strange having to say ‘good bye’ to someone before leaving to work.

“Not gonna move from this place, that’s for sure.” Strider said, followed by a sneeze. He watched Egbert walk out the door as he leaned back on the couch, eyes more or less staring at his own lap. _He looks kinda nice…_ He thought, eyes closing. Maybe he could really stay with that man a little longer than just ‘until he recovered’.

That is, if Egbert wanted him around for that long. He was sure to make himself needed in that household though. He missed having a stable place to stay, and now that he was reminded of it, he sure as hell wasn’t going to let that opportunity slip through his fingers. But to do that he had to get over that stupid cold. And sitting on his ass all day wasn’t going to help him with that.

Getting up, he stretched his body as much as he could, before taking a walk inside the house, to get more used to his surroundings, since he only knew the kitchen and the living room, so far. He crossed one of the doors next to the kitchen’s and ended up in the laundry. It was terribly boring, almost as much as the living room, so he tried the other door that led to the study.

There was a piano, a working desk and a safe in there. If Egbert really could play the piano, that would be quite interesting. Strider couldn’t help but wonder just what was inside that huge safe in the corner. Maybe one day he could try and crack it, just for shits and giggles. For now, it was better to leave it alone. He had to get the other man’s confidence.

Walking out of the study and crossing the living room, he started going upstairs. When he reached the second floor, he walked into the hallway and opened the door to Egbert’s bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it was pretty bare, decoration wise. But everything looked really orderly and clean, which was certainly a good thing.

Finally, he got to the bathroom.

Even with his cat-like tendencies, he was delighted to find out there was a bathtub in there. He certainly loved those things and, well, since he haven’t bathed nor showered in a really long time, a warm bath sounded just great. And it would probably help with the cold a little.

In no time, he was out of his baggy trousers and underwear, his tail finally free to wave back and forth in anticipation as he soaked in the warm water. Letting out a purr of clear satisfaction, he just laid there for a while, the nice, almost too comfortable water making his body tingle a little.

He closed his eyes, thinking that things really couldn’t get better than that.


	3. Furniture Hopping, Piano Playing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I said I wasn't listening to piano music while writing all of this...
> 
> I would be lying.
> 
> Anyways, another chapter down. And this one is way too sweet /shifty eyes

The weekend went by somewhat slow, for both Egbert and Strider. Specially for Strider, who was itching to do something, anything, while the other man wouldn’t let him do a thing while ‘so sick’. He understood that guy just wanted him to get well, but it was highly frustrating to just sit and do nothing. He was pretty close to flipping that stupid couch if he had to stay put in it any longer.

When Sunday night rolled in, Strider’s health was finally back on its proper tracks. He was sitting at the kitchen, mindlessly looking at the fruit bowl placed on the table. Since his first bath in that house he began wearing the clothes he was keeping stored in his sylladex. They were quite the opposite of the ones he was wearing when Egbert found him. Baggy trousers were replaced by skinny black jeans – with a proper opening for his tail – and the hoodie was discarded to give way to a white shirt. He also started wearing his pointy shades again and, occasionally, a cap – also with openings, for his ears.

Speaking of his previous attire…

Egbert walked into kitchen, back from the laundry.

“Here, they are all clean now.” He said with a sympathetic smile, handing the bundle of clothes he had in his arms to the other man.

“Thanks, even if I’m not going to wear these all that often anymore.” Strider couldn’t help but crack a smile as he captchapalogued his clothes. It was nice having someone who cared. “I mean, since I don’t have to hide my looks from you.”

“I admit… I’m actually getting used to it.” Egbert tried his best to not make a big deal about that and, in the end, it really wasn’t.

“The same way you got used to this boring way of life, hm?” Strider said in an almost teasing way.

“Wha… My lifestyle isn’t boring.”

“You gotta be fucking kidding, right? Nothing ever happens in this household. You definitely need to learn how to shake things up a little.” Strider kept smiling, picking an apple from the bowl on the table. “I can teach you how to have fun in case you forgot.”

“I know how to have fun!” Egbert just crossed his arms in front of his chest, his face clearly showing his annoyance.

“Is that so? What do you do then?” Strider took a bite from the apple, waiting for an answer.

“Well, I play the piano, I watch some TV, bake cakes, or I just sit back and relax while smoking my pipe. This is  _fun_  to me.” Really, the nerve of that guy… Just walking into his house and judging his way of life like that… He was indeed as cocky as a cat would be. If cats could talk.

“Don’t need to get all hot under your neatly ironed collar now. I’m just pulling your leg here.” Strider said with a small chuckle. “I’m more used to a faster and more exciting way of life, but I think I can learn how to things slow like you.”

“‘Learn how to’? How long do you intend to stay here?” Egbert couldn’t help but ask, even if he had to admit that sounded a little bit ‘ruder’ than he intended.

“I just supposed you would like some company for a while. I mean, you sure are a lonely guy, living here in this house all by yourself.” Strider kept on eating his apple in between words, pausing to chew on it.

“I appreciate the concern, but I’m doing quite fine all by myself.” Egbert just rolled his eyes at that. Was he going to be like all those people down at his workplace, telling him he should get company when he was doing perfectly well living on his own? “I… hope you aren’t taking this personal.”

“Not a bit. I understand it now. You are a loner. A true bachelor. You feel all comfortable sitting here all by yourself, smoking a pipe while in your robe and slippers, hitting piano keys and thinking of that beautiful lady you spotted at a stoplight on your way home from your boring office work.” Strider said all that with little to no hesitation on his voice, as if he was planning to say all that all along. And he was quite amused by the look of clear awe in the other man’s face. “Did I get it right?”

“L-Look, can we stop talking about me?” Egbert looked away, leaning against the kitchen’s counter.

“Alright, I’ll stop deducing obvious things about your private life. But I’ll say one thing: keeping me around is a good idea.” Strider finally finished his apple, leaving almost nothing to be thrown in the garbage.

“And why do you say that?” Egbert asked, wondering just what that guy was up to.

“Because…” Strider left that sentence unfinished, seemingly disappearing on thin air, much to Egbert’s surprise. He looked around frantically, trying to spot the other man, and found him standing near the garbage can, on the other side of the room.

“… How did you do that?”

“Can’t you tell? It’s magic. I’m a magical cat.” Strider couldn’t hold back the grin that formed on his lips.

“Stop mocking me and just tell me how you did it.” Egbert crossed his arms, eyes half-lidded.

“Fine. Geez, you could have played along a little, you know? Well, the truth is, I’m just a little bit faster than the average people. And even the average house cat, if you want to get really ‘specific’.” Strider stretched his fingers, before popping up on the top of the fridge in the blink of an eye.

“I won’t lie, this is rather impressive.” Egbert said, taking a small pause before speaking again. “It would be better if you didn’t climb on my refrigerator though.”

“Alright, alright…” Strider dropped to the floor, still smiling. “No more furniture hopping.”

“Well, I think there’s no harm in showing you what I can do then.”

“Hm?”

“Just, hm, come with me.” Egbert said, looking a little bit nervous as he started walking out of the kitchen. That certainly pinged Strider’s curiosity and he followed the other man into the study. When there, Egbert walked to the safe, placing a hand over it.

“So? What is that you want to show me? You know how to crack safes or something?” Strider asked, leaning against the wall.

“It’s not that. It’s… this.” Egbert placed both hands under the safe and, just like that, he lifted it, apparently making little to no effort.

Now _that_ was something Strider never saw before. His smile disappeared to give place to a genuine look of surprise, and even a little bit shock. Just how that guy did that? He didn’t even look that strong.

“This is… well that was unexpected.” He really couldn’t find any words to fit the situation, because that was actually the very first time he was genuinely surprised by anything. “Since when do you know how to do this?”

“As far as I remember, since I was little. You are the only person to ever see this though.” Egbert said, smiling faintly, putting the safe down carefully.

“I guess I’m honored. But, what the fuck man! With all this strength, why the hell are you working on a boring office job? You could be out there being some sort of super cop or something.” Strider just had to criticize that. With such strength, he could be some sort of hero.

“I think I just don’t want people to think I’m some sort of monstrosity.” Egbert just scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“OK… I can relate to that. Heh… sucks to be able to do something but not being ‘allowed’ to do it because people freak out at the stupidest things.” Strider did his best to smile again. “Hey now, look on the bright side. At least you don’t need to be all self conscious about your looks.”

“I guess…”

“Well, it’s too bad that you are superman though. That means you don’t really need me hanging around.” Strider shrugged, still smiling, going to where the piano was.

“Why are you saying that?” Egbert didn’t really understand what that guy meant with that.

“Only reason why I showed off back there was because I wanted to show you I could be useful by giving you some protection. You obviously don’t need it though, with that strength of yours. Either way, could you play something? I mean, if this is my last day in this household, I want to at least see you playing this thing.” He tapped his fingers on the wooden surface of the piano.

“Hm, alright then.” Egbert walked to the instrument, sitting at it. “I’m not all that good though.”

“You’ll do fine. Just play whatever.” Strider said, sitting on the floor and resting his back against the piano, arms placed on his knees.

Egbert just nodded and, after pressing a few keys to see if the piano was properly tuned, he began to play the first thing that came to his mind. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was a quite soothing melody and quite in tune.

“You were talking bullshit. You play quite well.” Strider said after a couple of minutes, smiling to himself and closing his eyes. Feeling at ease and in peace like that was a really great feeling, and one he was a little bit ‘unfamiliar’ with, for a long time.

“Thanks…” Egbert kept playing, his mind drifting a little. It was a new thing to be playing to someone else. He always just did it to himself, and to be honest he always thought that doing it for someone else was something that would never happen. He didn’t know how wrong he was.

Since Egbert wasn’t playing anything in particular, he stopped at some random point to look at Strider and say something to him, but stopped when he noticed the other man was sleeping there, on the floor. And… was that purring? He did seem quite satisfied, that much Egbert could tell.

It felt weird to think that guy would be on his way the next day. In all honesty, Egbert kind of enjoyed having someone around he could talk to.

Maybe the people at work were right.

Maybe he _did_ need some company.

Softly patting Strider on the head, Egbert just turned off the lights in the study and went to his bedroom.

There was no harm in keeping the other man there for a couple more days.


	4. A Deal With Certain Unstability

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter you guise.
> 
> I just want to thank everyone for the AWESOME comments and all those kudos. I'm super thrilled about both <3
> 
> Let us embark on another episode of this magical journey! *haha*

Another Monday morning rolled in, with the skies as clear as ever.

Yet again Egbert’s alarm clock disturbed the silence in the household, but not for long, as the man soon was up on his feet, wide awake. Something wasn’t boding well though. There was a certain stillness in the air he was able to fill even without leaving his room.

Getting out of the bedroom, without even bothering to change into his regular clothes or putting on his slippers, Egbert walked downstairs, and was greeted by an empty living room. He walked to the study in a rush. Also empty. The kitchen and the laundry were just the same. He didn’t even have to check the bathroom and veranda to know that he wouldn’t find anything on them either.

Strider was gone.

It was almost weird to be alone like that again. Even if the other man just kept him company for three days at the most, that was something new to Egbert, and the novelty of it had a slightly strong impact on him. But if not keeping Strider around was a thing that needed to happen, then he would just deal with that.

He climbed the stairs back to his bedroom, to get ready for work. It would be another boring and long bus trip to the office. Thankfully, his car would be fixed that week. At least he wouldn’t be at the mercy of public transportation.

Meanwhile, twenty blocks or so away from Egbert’s residence, Strider, back on his loose clothes and with the hood covering his head, was walking down the street, a bit of a frown on his face. He really thought that would be his lucky break, but even if that guy was kind, he wasn’t going to abuse his hospitality. He could be cocky and even a little bit forceful, but like hell he was going to completely mess someone’s way of life for his own sake. He wasn’t so selfish.

He was still going to miss all that free food and shelter though. At least he got quite satisfied that past weekend. But soon enough he would have to go back to hunting birds, even if their meat was far from the mouth-watering heaven that was the food in Egbert’s house.

OK, maybe he was exaggerating the quality of the food, but everything he ate there was legitimately delicious. Especially after all those weeks of getting little to nothing to eat.

Back at Egbert’s house, at this point he was already dressed for work. He went on with usual morning routine, with his milk and coffee, and pondering about just what he was going to do when coming back home. And nothing really occurred to him. Maybe Strider was right. Maybe he should try putting some excitement in his life.

A few minutes later he was out the door, heading to the bus stop. He couldn’t help but wonder just where the other man was at that point. Probably miles away from there, considering his speed. He also got himself thinking about something else: Strider mentioned something about ‘protecting’ him the night before, and that obviously didn’t involve his speed and claws alone. There was definitely more to it, and he couldn’t help but blame himself for not asking when he had the chance.

After walking all the blocks needed to reach his destination, Egbert was happy that the bus arrived almost as soon as he stopped walking. But his happiness as quickly dampened when he opened his wallet to get the money to pay for the bus.

Apparently, Strider decided to take a small ‘gift’ from his staying. And said gift was all the money on Egbert’s wallet.

He was infuriated by that, because not only he would miss his bus, he would have to go all the way back home to get money to spend the day. Suddenly, he felt like an idiot for having all those feelings of sympathy towards the other man.

Not too far from there, Strider was sitting at a café, having breakfast. He tapped the back pocket of his trousers, smiling slyly.

_ Sorry about that Egbert… but a guy has to eat.  _ He thought as he sipped on his water, before taking another bite off his tuna sandwich. When he was done eating, he paid the waitress and was out in the streets again.

Sure enough Strider could always walk to wherever he felt like, but to be honest he wasn’t in the mood for walking. So, he waited by a nearby bus stop to take a bus to any random destination. Maybe he could go to another city and see what his luck would be there. Sounded like a plan.

Of course that he just didn’t take the bus like any other regular person. That would cost him money he didn’t have. He had to save what he got from Egbert for as long as he could. So, when the bus finally showed up, he swiftly got on top of it. That was a lot cheaper and, in all honesty, a lot more fun. He didn’t really care that people from higher buildings could see him just lying there on the bus’ ceiling. He had more important things to worry about.

At some point during the trip, Strider’s nose picked up a slightly familiar scent. It was a bit faint, thanks to all the other smells around, but he could swear he could distinguish something familiar among all the mess.

He moved on the bus ceiling, carefully peeking through one of the windows. His eyes pretty much instantly widened when he spotted Egbert among the small crowd inside the bus. And he looked very, very displeased.

Quickly retreating to the ceiling, Strider couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. What were even the odds for such a thing to happen? More than that, he was actually curious to know just how ‘angry’ he was about the stolen money. Even if it wasn’t the brightest idea, Strider wanted to meet and talk to the other man, because he could already tell just how amusing it would be to see him flustered.

Keeping track of that smell, Strider made sure to hop off the bus when Egbert reached his destination. He saw the other man getting inside a quite high building. Probably the boring office space he went to work day in, day out. Just how someone could stand such a boring and uneventful routine was beyond him. Sure he had no stable way of life, but he rather much preferred the freedom from being a ‘stray’ to being confined on a small cubicle for hours on end.

Now, following logic, Egbert would have to get out of the building around noon to have lunch, unless he were one of those weird people that ate lunch inside the office. So Strider just had to wait for him to step out of the building, eventually. There was a problem though: just what was he going to do during all those hours he would have to wait for such a thing to happen? Because, well, it wasn’t like Strider’s agenda was chock full of things.

So, he just did the most logical thing one could do to wait for something to happen: he went to a more secluded place and took a nap.

After four long hours of sleep, Strider woke up, almost instantly checking his watch. Ten minutes to noon. He got out of his hiding spot in one of the countless alleyways in that avenue and leaned against a wall near the office building, watching people go in and out of it by the corner of his eye.

When Egbert finally stepped out of the building, Strider couldn’t help but find it amusing how the other man just walked by him without even seeing him there. Talk about a guy who was really centered about his job. It was quite admirable, really.

Casually following Egbert, Strider saw him enter a nearby restaurant and waited a couple of minutes to enter too. When he did, he scanned the room and soon enough found the other man sitting with his back turned to the front door of the restaurant. With a smirk, he walked to the table where he was sitting all by himself.

“Is this seat taken?” Strider asked, placing a hand on the table. He wasn’t surprised when Egbert’s sight instantly shifted from the food to him.

“Y-You… How did you… You really have a lot of nerve showing up in front of me after stealing my money.” Egbert did his best not to raise his voice. And he was making quite the effort.

“‘Steal’ is such a harsh word. I prefer the term ‘borrowed’. Besides, I needed some money to eat, OK?” Strider sat across the table, grinning. “So, is this how you spend your week? Locked in that office and taking a 30 minute break to grab a bite?”

“… Have you been following me?” Egbert looked at the other man between half-lidded eyes, going back to eating his food.

“I swear it was completely accidental.” Strider put his hands up in an attempt to convey his innocence. “I ended up picking up your smell while riding the bus and couldn’t help dropping by to say ‘hi’.”

“You do realize that saying that you can track me by the smell makes you sound like a stalker, right?” Egbert couldn’t believe he was having that conversation. In the middle of a restaurant, of all places.

“Look, this isn’t something I can control, OK?” Strider crossed his arms in front of his chest. “By the way, sorry for not sticking around to say good bye earlier today. I’m not the best when it comes to these things.”

“It’s OK. I’m not good at those either.” Egbert put his fork down for a moment, before looking at the man sitting in front of him. “It was weird though. Being in an empty house again.”

Strider didn’t say anything in response to that. His wide grin was gone and he was just looking at Egbert with a serious expression upon his face. That was far from the jokingly encounter he had planned, but for some reason he thought that wasn’t the best time to fool around. Jokes and the like could be saved for later.

“I guess that what I’m trying to say is that having you around was nice and, I kind of want to keep things that way, for a while?” Egbert scratched the back of his head.

“… Is that so?”

“W-well, I was going to tell you that in the morning, but then you vanished on thin air.” Egbert just went back to staring at his food. He wasn’t sure why the hell he was giving that guy a chance, even after him stealing his money.

A clear smile of satisfaction appeared on Strider’s lips as he heard that.

Yes. That was his lucky break.

“Look, I would be lying if I didn’t say that it was good to have a place to stay, and with someone who didn’t call the circus on me. So, since you need company, and I need a ceiling above my head, I think we should stick together for a while.” Strider went back to his mischievous grinning. Admittedly, he liked that guy a lot. Specially his obviously forgiving nature.

“Why are _you_ making this decision?” Egbert couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that. That guy acted like he owned the world or something.

“Let’s face it. If we were to wait for you to decide, we would be sitting here until we got old and gray.” Strider reached into the back pocket of his trousers and pulled out the money he got from Egbert. “Here. This is your money. There’s some missing because I had breakfast this morning.” And pulling a five dollar bill from the small wad of cash, he continued talking, getting up from his chair. “I’ll just use that to pay for the bus ride back to your home, alright?”

“Alright, fine. Just… let me eat in peace, OK?” Egbert picked the money from the table to put it on his wallet.

“Sure thing. See you later.” And with that, he just walked out of the restaurant.

Egbert couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Now he had finally sealed his deal with an uncertain future.


	5. For Your Protection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took a while. Sorry guise. I was busy with Real Life, not to mention that I was having a hard time tying up the 'beginning' of the story with what I want to write next, and this chapter was the one that had to 'do the trick'.
> 
> But rest assured that chapters will come on a more regular basis from now on.

Saying that the days that followed were ‘unusual’ would be an understatement. At least that’s how Egbert saw it.

To be completely honest, he knew absolutely nothing about cats. He knew the bare basics anyone usually does, but that was about it. And having to deal with a half-human, half-cat hybrid that apparently couldn’t decide if he wanted to be behave like a human or an animal just made everything a lot more complicated.

At times, not considering the obvious cat features Strider had, he acted just like any other regular human being, sitting at the table to eat, watching TV, taking regular showers…

Then, there were moments where, apparently, his feline instincts decided to kick in, and that’s when things got quite odd.

Licking the back of his hand to ‘clean’ his ears, sitting in quite strange positions and sometimes just staring at seemingly invisible things were the most ‘tame’ things that could happen.

It was really aggravating when Strider just simply decided to sleep in whatever place he felt like. On the top of the fridge, inside the tumble dryer – Egbert had to ask himself just **how** one could sleep comfortably inside a dryer – on the bathtub and, most of the times, on freshly washed and dried laundry. When Egbert asked why he enjoyed sleeping on those so much, Strider just said that it was because they were comfortable. No more, no less.

Sometimes he also seemed to enjoy sleeping inside the laundry basket, as Egbert found out one day when he ended up dumping his bed sheets on top of him. He never asked Strider why he liked sleeping there, of all places, because he was honestly not willing to know why anyone would want to sleep on top of dirty clothes. And how the other man could comfortably fit in such places was still a mystery.

There was also the problem of him pretty much destroying the furniture around the house, on occasion. Mainly the couch and the mattress on Egbert’s bed – strangely enough he never got near the piano. It wouldn’t be much of a problem if Strider only used his claws. The real issue was the katana he carried around, which he constantly used to pretty much ‘decimate’ the walls and the legs of chairs.

That sword popped up for the first time on Wednesday, after dinner, when Egbert finally remembered to bring up the subject of Strider ‘protecting’ him.

“Oh, I never really gave out too many details about that, right?” Strider had an almost apologetic look on his face as he spoke. “Well, I have this you see?” He said, pulling the katana from his sylladex. “Not to brag or anything, but I’m pretty fucking good at handling it.”

“Well, I’m sure that you are quite the fighter, with your speed and that sword.” Egbert stopped talking for a moment, as if pondering, before continuing. “I’m actually surprised you aren’t some kind of ‘night vigilante’.”

“And who said I wasn‘t? You have no idea how many asses me and this beauty here saved.” Strider let out a small laugh. “You want to show you just what this thing is capable of?”

“Strider, it’s a sword. I don’t think it can do anything that’s new to me.” Egbert just tilted his head to the side, not really getting the point of showcasing such a thing. Once you saw a sword cutting stuff, you have seen all, right?

“Wow, way to be a party wrecker Egbert.” Strider just looked at the other man behind half-lidded eyes. “Why can’t you ever pretend to be a little bit stoked or interested?”

“Alright, if that makes you happy, just show me what you can do then.” Egbert was a little bit reluctant to give that a green light, but he also thought it wasn’t very polite of him to completely ignore and disregard the other man like that.

“That’s more like it. Here, let’s go to the backyard and I’ll show it.” Strider smiled as he turned, promptly walking to the door that lead to the back of the house, being followed accordingly by the other man.

Once outside, he asked Egbert if he cared a whole lot about the single tree growing there. When he got a negative answer, he grinned in satisfaction, walking to it and positioning himself. What followed happened, literally, in the blink of an eye, and Egbert had a hard time believing what just took place, his pipe almost falling from his parted lips.

In just a mere second, the tree’s trunk was cut in four separate pieces, all of them measured almost identically. Strider just had to give it a small tap for it to fall to pieces, a look of accomplishment on his face as he put away his katana.

“Not bad, don’t you think?” He asked, walking, walking towards Egbert and standing by his side, lightly hitting his shoulder.

“I-It’s certainly impressive… Wait!” Egbert quickly shifted his gaze from the destroyed tree to the man standing next to him, his mind putting 2 and 2 together. “Is that how you intended to protect me? By shredding people to pieces?”

“Is there a problem?” Strider’s smile faded for a moment, as he looked genuinely confused, as if not knowing what the issue with that was.

“Y-yes, several for that matter!” Egbert couldn’t believe that guy saw nothing wrong with running through people with a sword. Just how screwed up was his sense of right and wrong anyway? “Di-Did you kill someone before?”

“If I did? Well, I guess. I mean, it was for the sake of protecting others, so why not?” Strider just shrugged.

“Great… I’m sheltering a murderer…” Egbert mumbled to himself, his hand going for his forehead as he looked around nervously, as if, suddenly, all the neighbors knew he had affiliated with a bloodthirsty killer that seemed to have little to no remorse.

Strider pretty much instantly saw the nervous and almost terrified look on Egbert’s face, and couldn’t help but chuckle a little at that, which made the other man look at him with eyes wide open. Was he honestly laughing during such a situation?

“You know, sometimes, I wish you were always this easy to ‘trick’.” Strider placed a hand on Egbert’s shoulder, smiling. “C’mon now, any idiot knows that killing people is a stupid thing to do. I mean, just look at me. I already have trouble enough fitting in. I don’t need a criminal record to _help_ me out.”

Egbert’s expression shifted from worried to angry in mere seconds, before he spoke. “You know, you have a really bad taste for jokes.”

“C’mon, don’t get all touchy about it.” Strider put his hands behind his head, trying his best to look as innocent as ever. “Aren’t you happy that you are helping an upstanding citizen instead of a cold blooded serial killer?”

“Whatever you say…” Egbert sighed to himself. “Look, let’s head back inside, OK?” And with that, he turned around and walked to the back door of the house, as Strider watched him go.

“I’ll go in a minute.” Strider said as he watched the other man open the door and close it behind him. As soon Egbert was inside, his rather large grin got smaller for a moment, as he looked at the tree pieces on the ground. Pushing one of them with his feet, he stuffed his hands on the back pockets of his jeans, as he just stood there thinking.

With a small shrugs, he just turned around and went to the door as well, getting inside.

He walked past the laundry and the kitchen, and found Egbert watching TV on the living room. He silently sat on the couch to join him, eyes looking at the television but his mind in a completely different place.

“Are you OK?” Egbert asked, noticing that the other man wasn’t quite _there_.

“Hm? Ah, yes I am. I was just thinking about how you are one of the very few people to ever see me using my sword. It’s kind of nice, I guess.” Strider leaned back on the couch, arms crossed in front of his chest.

Egbert just nodded and switched his attention back to the TV. He was slowly but surely learning that asking Strider things didn’t really give many clues as to what he was thinking or details about whatever he did before their paths crossed. So, as to not seem invasive, he never really asked further questions or pried him for more information. If he felt like talking, he would do that whenever he felt like.

Besides, it wasn’t like they knew each other for long. Not even six days have passed since their first meeting, so wanting to know details about his life wasn’t polite. Not to mention that Strider almost never questioned anything about his life, so it was only fair to behave the same way.

Somewhere around 11PM that night, Egbert said good night to Strider and went to bed, as the other man stayed there, as he kept watching the TV in a rather uninterested way. He skipped through the channels, until turning it off, lying on the couch afterwards, closing his eyes to get to sleep as well.

One hour after tossing and turning, Strider’s eyes snapped open. That wasn’t working. Swiftly and silently, he went upstairs and, soon enough, he was at Egbert’s room. He would never say it out loud, but that room had a nice, welcoming smell to it.

He sat by the side of the bed, in a way that would be considered somewhat uncomfortable by normal standards, but that was perfectly fine for him.

And that’s how he stayed, for a good half an hour, his ears picking the smallest noises like the weak sound of a police car far, far away, the subtle crackling of the wooden furniture inside the room while they expanded and contracted, and the ever so faint breathing from the other man.

That was the very first time he ever got inside that room while Egbert was sleeping. If he were to wake up at that moment, he would certainly say something about that being ‘creepy’ or ‘unsettling’ and ask him what the hell he was doing there.

And, to be honest, Strider wouldn’t have a reply to that, because he didn’t even know why he was there himself. Maybe he just needed to be sure that Egbert was safe and sound; even if it was more than clear there was no danger in sight.

But, better than anyone, Strider knew how things could change in a second, so better be safe than sorry.


	6. In Need of Shelter, In Need of Company

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you guys I was going to work on these things faster now, didn't I?
> 
> This was the product of me staying up until 3AM listening to piano music. You've been warned. If it's too sweet, you know why.

The days turned into weeks, which turned into months. Neither of them ever expected that relationship of sorts to last for so long, and that they would end up getting used to each other, to the point where they actually missed one another.

Strider would just sit around the house, being bored out of his skull, while Egbert would spend his working hours expecting for his shift to be over so then he could go back home and get some dose of distraction while with the other man. They didn’t do exceptionally exciting things, but they were enough to keep both of them entertained and in a good mood, until the next day rolled in and Egbert would have to go to work, again.

Egbert’s demeanor at work had changed ever so slightly. He seemed more motivated, even a little bit more cheerful. In the end, his coworkers were right. He needed some company on his life. Someone to talk to when he went back home. When questioned about his mood change, he would just casually say he got a cat.

It wasn’t completely true, but it wasn’t a lie either.

The weekends were certainly the best days though, where they had the chance to spend some quality time together, and, consequently, get to know each other better. It was still ‘hard’ for Strider to disclose anything about his past, but he was always up to talk about other things, like personal tastes, what he liked to eat, what he enjoyed doing… As much as Egbert would like to know more about how his life was before, that could wait.

He was particularly curious about it when Strider began to sleep by the side of his bed regularly, to the point where Egbert was forced to buy an extra mattress to put by the side of his bed. When inquired about the reasons behind that, Strider just said he was worried about the other man’s safety. That was particularly intriguing. It was clear nothing harmful was going to fall upon them. So why was he so worried? And didn’t he say, just after their first meeting, that Egbert was more than capable of taking care of himself? Why he was so compelled to be protective?

After a while though, Egbert honestly thought that was a normal behavior for Strider. After all, he didn’t know him for long. Maybe he was just paranoid like that.

One particular Friday night, Egbert was laying on his bed, reading a book, while Strider was more or less ‘curled up’ on the mattress, back turned to the other man. It had been a long time since Egbert questioned Strider’s sleeping positions. Everything was almost dead quiet, until a sigh echoed inside the room.

“… Anything wrong?” Egbert asked, putting the book down for a moment, already expecting the other man to dismiss that question with a grin and by saying ‘I’m great’ or any equivalent.

“Why are you keeping me here?” Strider asked, the tone of his voice far from the usual enthusiastic one he seemed to use all the time. “I mean, it’s great that you are OK with having me around for all this time, but I… don’t think I’m doing much in return?”

“What are you talking about?” Egbert had to ask, even if he kind of had an idea of what the other man meant by that.

“I mean, I mostly just eat your food, destroy your furniture and sit around the house doing almost nothing. Like, I do clean some things up from time to time, but I don’t know… I think I’m not paying you back enough?” Strider said, still with his back turned to Egbert, not really wanting to look at his face as he said those things. He wasn’t very good at exposing his feelings like that, especially when they involved him feeling any kind of ‘doubt’.

“And who ever said anything about paying back?” Egbert frowned, as his suspicion was confirmed. “If I’m OK with keeping you here as it is, that means you must be doing something right, don’t you think?”

“Or maybe you are just too nice and I’m taking advantage of your kindness.” Strider let those words out a little bit more harshly than he intended to. Another heavy sigh followed those words as he sat up, getting up from the mattress right after. “Sorry. I… guess I’ll go downstairs for a bit.” There was a certain rush on his steps as he left the bedroom, leaving behind a rather confused Egbert, whom had no idea what just happened, and didn’t know if it was the wisest thing to go after the other man.

That was the very first time Egbert saw Strider lose his perpetually lively and cool behavior, and to be honest he was worried.

He never expected nor wanted the other man to ‘pay him back’ for giving him food and shelter. Strider was doing enough by keeping him company and listening to his problems, even if he didn’t notice it.

And that was the moment when Egbert felt like an idiot.

In any moment whatsoever he told Strider that he enjoyed his company, and that he was, more or less, something that was missing from his daily life. And all things considered, Strider surely regarded him very highly, for taking him in with little hesitation like that.

Getting up from the bed, Egbert walked out of the bedroom and went downstairs, finding the other man in yet another uncomfortable looking position on the couch, eyes closed. He quietly walked to it and sat by the free spot by the side of Strider’s head.

“You aren’t sleeping, are you?” Egbert asked, hands on his lap.

“No.” Strider answered on a mildly bored tone, eyes opening just a little.

“Look, I know it isn’t always, well, very clear, but I just want to let you know that the reason why I’m letting you stay no matter what is because you keep me company and… this is kind of nice.” Egbert scratched the back of his head, hoping those words didn’t make it sound like he was desperate for company or something like that. He waited a bit to see if he would get any answer from Strider, but when he heard nothing, he decided to keep talking.

“I mean, at work people were always telling me I should find me some company, to the point where even a pet would do. They always insisted that I was too much of a ‘loner’ like you said, but I never really took their words into consideration.” Egbert smiled a bit to himself. It seemed like it was yesterday that he was rolling his eyes at his coworkers’ words and not giving them the attention they needed. “And now that you are here, it is nice to have someone to talk to, when I come back. So, that’s why I don’t care f you eat my food or if you cut off the legs of the chairs in the kitchen. I mean, this is the most excitement I had in years. Guess I can’t complain.”

“Heh… Yeah, that’s just what I said…” Strider let out another sigh, but this was different from the earlier ones.

“Hm? What?”

“You are too nice.” Strider sat up, letting out a brief chuckle. “I mean, anyone else would have kicked me out by now, even if I was great company. I’m happy that you think like that though.” He grinned, clearly back to his regular self. “You know, I just didn’t want to come off as a goddamn bloodsucker or something.”

“I’m not ‘too nice’. I’m just doing what’s right. If this helps both of us, I don’t think there’s a problem with keeping this up.” Egbert crossed his arms.

“Alright, alright, whatever you say.” Strider kept on smiling. He would be lying if he said that it wasn’t amusing and even a bit heart warming to hear those words. “Say, since we are opening our hearts here, there’s a thing I’ve always wanted to ask of you.”

“And what would that be?”

“I hope you don’t find this weird or anything, but could you, like, scratch my ears from time to time?” Strider said that as nonchalantly as he could. Even he knew that was a sort of unusual request, but he couldn’t help it. His non-human side was kind of asking for that.

There was a long silent pause as Egbert just kind of stared at Strider, not really sure how to respond to that. In one hand, that seemed like a reasonable request, considering how he was half-cat. On the other hand, it sure was weird for him to be ‘petting’ another guy on the head as if it was nothing.

“Well… I think I can do that… As unusual as that sounds.” Egbert scratched the back of his head.

“Then do it now.” Strider said casually, back to curling up on the couch.

As much as Egbert should be used to Strider being straight forward on al his requests, that was a little bit on the odd side. Still, he said he would do it, and since he wasn’t the kind of man to back up on his words…

Hesitantly, Egbert put a hand over the other man’s head and started scratching behind his ear quite lightly. A small sound of satisfaction left Strider’s lips as he moved on the couch a bit, head snuggling against Egbert’s leg. After a minute or two, Strider was already mindlessly purring in response to that. Not too long after that, he was already sleeping soundly.

Carefully, Egbert got up and walked to the stairs to go back to his room, but not before glancing at the man curled up on his couch, sleeping as peaceful as ever.

He could already feel things would just get stranger from that point on.


	7. The Cake Incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha... This took a while, hm?
> 
> Real life punched me in the guts constantly, not to mention that I couldn't decide if I should include this bit on the fic or not.
> 
> I decided I should. Because... WHY NOT?
> 
> Also, by the end of the chapter there's something important and that'll be relevant for plot and character development. Because... this fic is lacking in both of these departments. It's something I've had planned since the beginning of this fic, so, stick around! It'll be good!

It was yet another weekend, and Strider was sitting on the roof of Egbert’s house, eyes watching the clear blue skies from behind his shades, as the smell of freshly baked goods reached his nostrils. One thing he could never complain about in that residence: the quality of the food. Egbert was quite good at cooking, and pretty much everything he did have no faults whatsoever, and Strider had no problem when it came to devouring those dishes.

He hopped from the ceiling to the veranda, getting inside the house, walking by the hallway and down the stairs, crossing the living room and finally reaching the kitchen.

“Whatever it is that you are doing, it smells good.” He said as he entered and peeked inside the oven.

“I put that cake in the oven literally five minutes ago. How can you smell it already?” Egbert was always impressed just how the other man could pick up scents so easily, and discern one smell from another even when there were enough to drive someone to madness.

“Thank that to genetic enhancement. Can’t wait to get a taste of it. And don’t tell me what it’s in it. I want to guess it by eating it.” Strider was genuinely happy and excited about that. He seemed to be like that almost every weekend.

“Can’t you guess it by just taking a whiff from it?” Egbert couldn’t help but be a little bit amused by all that enthusiasm from the other man.

“I could, but I won’t. I mean, what’s the fun in that, when I can do the same thing by tasting it and having an excuse to eat more than needed?” Sitting in one of the chairs, Strider smiled widely at Egbert in a quite playful way.

“You sure have quite the appetite. I thought cats weren’t such gluttons.” Egbert couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that. As much as he didn’t mind that, he would appreciate if Strider didn’t eat pretty much everything in sight. Just where did he get that appetite anyway? OK, he did spend a lot of energy running around and doing ‘cat stuff’, but Egbert doubted that was enough to give him such a huge appetite.

“Well, my body asks for food, I just do what it’s telling me to do.” Strider stretched his arms, leaning back on the chair. To him, there was nothing wrong with indulging on food, especially when it tasted good.

“Whatever you say… Although, you’ll have to wait to start your little ‘guessing game’ because I’ll still need to add some things to this cake after it’s done baking.” Egbert sat on the other side of the table, hands resting on his thighs.

“Man, you sure know how to put a damper on a guy’s expectations, don’t you?” Strider kept smirking to show he was kidding, even if it came to a point where Egbert could tell he was joking around even when he had a perfect poker face on. That guy was good at those things. “Guess I’ll have to occupy my idle time with something. Guess I’ll go hop around the neighbors rooftops.”

“You know this is going to get you in trouble one of these days, right?” Egbert asked, giving the other man a mildly disapproving look.

“Tch… Nonsense! I doubt they even realize I’m walking on their roofs almost every day.” Strider shrugged, getting up from his chair.

“If someone sees you…” Egbert started, but stopped when he noticed that Strider was nowhere to be seen. _Ugh… He never listens to me…_ He thought to himself, sighing. Just as he heard, cats sure were bad at being ‘obedient’.

Almost three hours had passed until Strider finally came back, a silly grin on his face as he walked by the door, letting himself fall on the couch. Going out like that to sneak around the nearby houses was always a unique experience. People in the neighborhood were, sometimes, the best to spy on, even if some were boring as hell.

“I take it that you had fun exploring the neighborhood again?” Egbert asked as he entered the living room, arms crossed in front of his chest.

“You bet. Did you know the girl that lives three blocks from here likes to dance around her room only in her underwear?” Strider chuckled to himself, as he watched Egbert turn red and look away almost instantly.

“Strider, how many times do I have to tell you to-”

“Not spy on other people’s houses. Yeah, yeah… You told me that countless times. But when their windows are wide open, it’s really fucking hard to hold back, you know?” Strider shrugged, not really minding that whole thing. He had to admit he made little to no effort to hold back his natural curiosity, and he usually didn’t tell the other man about the things he saw around the neighborhood, because he knew he would get scolded, but that latest bit of information was too priceless to keep to himself.

“If you are done reporting my neighbors’ activities, the cake I was doing is ready.” Egbert said, hoping that would stop Strider from disclosing embarrassing details about other people. Details he would rather not know about.

“It is? Well, what are we waiting for then? I’m ready to eat it!” Strider jumped from the couch into a standing position, passing by Egbert and rushing into the kitchen, as the other man just rolled his eyes and followed him.

When Egbert entered the kitchen, Strider was already sitting in one of the chair, knife in hand, cutting a piece of the cake. Guy sure was fast when it came to things that grabbed his interest. He watched as he picked up the sliced piece and analyzed it for a moment.

“You sure decorated it nicely! And, look, there are even some mysterious black bits in it, not to mention this extra layer. You sure exceeded yourself this time, didn’t you Egbert?” Strider opened a wide smile before taking a bite from the cake. He face just lit up even more when the flavor of the cake prickled his tongue.

“So? What’s in it?” Egbert asked as he approached the table, but all he got in response was a hand raised in front of his face, as Strider silently asked him to wait. Just when the other man was done with the cake he got some manner of an answer.

“OK, so… it’s a vanilla cake… that middle layer is made of apples and sugar… Now those black bits… I know I’ve tasted these before, but I can’t remember…” Strider looked at the cake. Not even the smell was giving him any clue as to what those were.

“Look, if you want another slice, just get one. Don’t pretend you don’t know what’s in it.” Egbert said, remembering what Strider told him earlier about having an excuse to eat more.

“I’m not lying. I really can’t tell what those are. They are delicious though.” Strider smiled, grabbing the knife to cut another piece from the cake.

“Well, if you must know, those are raisins.” Egbert thought that it was better to tell him straight, instead of waiting for him to eat the whole cake before finding out. He wasn’t buying that story that Strider ‘didn’t know’.

“… Di-Did you say raisins?” Strider let go off the knife, eyes wide and his expression changing from cheerful to somber in the blink of an eye, as he stared at the other man standing next to him.

“Anh… yes…” Egbert suddenly grew worried, wondering about just what triggered that sudden change of mood.

“… FUCK!” Strider said under his breath, getting up from the chair and exiting the kitchen so quick Egbert could barely see him, let alone call him back.

Searching around the house for the other man, Egbert found him after trying the bathroom door and discovering it was locked.

“H-Hey, what’s wrong? Can you let me in?” He asked, leaning against the door.

“Well, unless you want to see me puke my lunch and your cake in the next few minutes, I think it’s better for you to stay outside.” Strider tried to say that in the most playful way possible.

“Wait… Throwing up?” That certainly didn’t make Egbert less worried.

“Yeah. You see, I have a problem with raisins. And chocolate. But it had been years since I crossed paths with raisins, so I didn’t even remember how they tasted or smelt like. Little bastards.” Strider smiled to himself, feeling his stomach already turn.

“Y-You need to tell me these things!” Egbert was positively angry at that. That isn’t the kind of thing you hide from the person you’ve been living with for three months. “What if it was something that could kill you?”

“Then I would let you know. C’mon, you are… over-reacting.” Strider was finding it harder and harder to keep a ‘playful’ attitude, while swallowing in the hopeless attempt to prevent the inevitable.

The next hour or so was, in sum, Egbert from one side of the door scolding the other man for not warning him about things like those, and Strider on the other end telling him to shut up and stop being so concerned, while ‘expelling’ all the contents of his stomach on the toilet and progressively feeling more and more worn out.

When his stomach finally decided to calm down, Strider washed his mouth and brushed his teeth, before unlocking the door and opening it, doing his best to smile at the stern-looking Egbert on the other side.

“That was… quite the experience.” He said, leaning on the door frame.

“Look, I think you should lay down or something.” Egbert said, noticing that the other man was even more pale than normal. He didn’t even think that was a possibility.

“Tch… I’m great now, trust me.” Strider tried to walk past Egbert, but was grabbed by the wrist.

“Would you stop being stubborn and just rest for a while?” A sigh escaped from Egbert’s lips, as he already expected it to take forever to convince Strider to actually stay quiet for five minutes.

“Well, if that means so much to you. I want to rest on your bed though.” Strider kept smiling a little bit awkwardly, almost knowing that the other man wouldn’t say ‘no’ to his request.

And that’s exactly what happened. Egbert just agreed on that and Strider went to the bedroom to rest, as he went downstairs to put the cake away. Just what was he going to do with all that cake now? He really couldn’t eat it all by himself. With a sigh, he just put the cake on the refrigerator. He would think about what to do with it later. Maybe he could give a part of it to the next door neighbor or something.

After that, he went to the study to deal with some paperwork. After half an hour though, he realized it was hard to concentrate on that while his mind was focused on Strider’s condition, so he thought that he should check on the other man, since Egbert knew he would be too stubborn to let him know he was feeling ill. So, upstairs he went.

Egbert entered the bedroom and approached the bed quietly to check on the other man, and was relieved to see he was sleeping rather peacefully. That was a relief, after that huge scare. He was about to leave when his eyes caught a glimpse of something different.

He noticed Strider had something in his hand. At first, it seemed like a piece of paper, but upon closer examination he could see it was actually a photograph. It was quite worned out, but it was still clear to see what was in it: a man, visibly on his late forties, posing with a rifle, and by his side, there was Strider, a lot younger, smiling brightly.

That was odd. The other man never mentioned anyone from his past in those two months they had been living together. Egbert always thought he was a complete loner since birth. But he looked obviously happy and carefree with that man in the photo.

He felt like asking Strider about that later on, but if he never mentioned that man in all those months they spent together, there was probably a reason for that. And Egbert wasn’t the intrusive kind, and it would be especially rude to invade his privacy after almost poisoning him.

So, he dismissed that thought and pretended he didn’t see anything, leaving the bedroom.


	8. Unveiled Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's the keyword for this chapter kiddies: EXPOSITION.
> 
> This will be the next chapters keywords too, so, be prepared, really.
> 
> So. Much. Dialogue. I'm sorry in advance. Also this is way longer than necessary, really.

The next day, it was a Monday, and Egbert couldn’t stay around to see just how Strider was feeling, but judging by the way he was still sleeping like a rock, he was probably doing fine. Sometimes, he wondered why he even worried about the other man like that. He was **always** doing fine, no matter what.

During lunchtime though, he couldn’t help but call his home and was relieved when Strider answered the phone in his usual upbeat self. As a way to redeem himself from the incident that happened the day before – even if he didn’t do it on purpose – Egbert dropped by the supermarket on his way home, to buy a considerably large piece of meat. He thought that was the least he could do.

When at home, dinner went by in a rather uneventful way, but Egbert couldn’t stop thinking about the picture he saw on Strider’s hand the day before. To stop thinking about that, he decided to ask about something else.

“Hey, Strider, how did you find out that you don’t ‘go along’ with raisins and chocolate anyway?” He asked, getting another forkful of food.

“Hm? Well, like most things like that, I found it by accident.” Strider chuckled, teeth sinking on yet another piece of partially raw meat. “It was more than 10 years ago when it happened. I was only 13 back then and was starving.”

“You’ve been living out and about since you were that young?” Egbert asked, partially surprised by that. He expected the other man to be living all by himself for a long time, but not for so long.

“Pfft… I’ve been living like that since I can remember, really.” Strider said with a shrug. That clearly didn’t bother him as much as it should. “Well, but that’s beside the point. So, I was starving and, well, I was only a kid, and I was craving for something, anything that had sugar in it, so I thought it was a really brilliant idea to steal some chocolate covered raisings.”

“You ate both of them at the same time?” Egbert’s eyes went wide for a second. Just how unlucky someone had to be to do something like that?

“Yes I did. In retrospect it was a really stupid idea overall, because I should have stolen something a lot more nutritious than that, but I think my child-like thinking was speaking louder back then.” Strider kept on smiling as he remembered those memories that were long buried on the back of his mind. He forgot how he sometimes liked to rake up those, even if they were a little bit unpleasant.

“What happened after you ate those? You certainly got horribly sick.” Egbert’s voice sounded heavily concerned.

“You bet. That little ‘display’ from yesterday was nothing compared to what took place then. It didn’t help I haven’t eaten in a while.” Strider chewed down mouthfuls of meat as he spoke, mentally thanking the heavens for not having to starve for those past moths.

“That… sounds rough. How did you manage to get over that?” Egbert asked, noticing a brief pause on Strider’s actions. It was something short and barely noticeable, but it was there.

“How? Basically, after going through hell and back, eventually I had nothing else in my stomach, so I just sat around in a more deserted alley and waited for the sickness to subdue. Heh… talk about a lesson for life.” Strider kept on eating, eyes seemingly lost for a moment before getting focused on the food in front of him again.

To Egbert, it was more than clear that Strider wasn’t being completely honest with that story. And he was guessing that whatever he was hiding had something to do with whoever that guy in that picture with him was. Still, he chose not to pry him for information on that. Strider probably had his reasons to hide that part of his life so intently.

“I see. I’m glad nothing too bad went down.” Egbert smiled, finishing his dinner.

“You got it, didn’t you?” Strider shifted his attention from his meat to the other man, a somewhat weak smile on his lips.

“Hm? Get what?”

“That I’m straight out lying to you. Geez… I thought I was better at hiding things. I must be losing my touch.” Strider leaned back on his chair, scratching the back of his neck. “Want me to tell you what really went down?”

“I… I suppose. Only if you feel like it I guess.” Egbert wasn’t sure how to react to that. He sure wasn’t expecting Strider to willingly reveal his past, after working all those months to hide it so well.

“You already know a lot of things about me that no one else does. I think it’s fair to let in on important things from my past.” Another shrug before Strider began telling what really went down. “You see, while I was dying in some random alley, I felt a hand to my shoulder. I remember that, when it happened, I jumped back and stared at who did that. It was this 40-something guy. He kind of _looked_ nice, but since I didn’t trust anyone back then, I just glared at him. I remember he asked me what was wrong and I told him to ‘fuck off’.” Strider laughed to himself at that, those images playing on his head as if they had happened a few days before. “I don’t know who I was trying to fool with that attitude. I mean, I was a skinny, 13-year old kid who was as pale as a candle and shaking while leaning against a wall. I was the least threatening creature in the universe.”

Egbert wanted to mention the photo, but he thought it was unwise to do so. Strider could get the wrong idea and think he was snooping around his stuff, so he just nodded and allowed the other man to continue his story.

“Needless to say, that guy was far from intimidated by me. When he asked me a second time what was wrong, I was about to give him another rude reply when I felt this pain in my stomach that just made me double over and fall to my knees on the ground. It was really pathetic…” Strider ground his teeth for a moment. He hated feeling powerless like that, and not being able to protect himself properly. “When he tried to approach me again I pulled my sword out and pointed it at his neck. Man… When I look back at it I actually regret being such an ass to him, because he was honestly just trying to help.”

“You sure were a tough kid, trying to fight a grown man while in such a condition.” Egbert was seriously impressed that someone so young could be so bold. Now it was quite obvious that it was pointless worrying about that guy.

“‘Tough’ isn’t exactly the word I would use. I guess I was more like careless and stupid. I mean, I almost killed someone that was trying to help me out with my so called _bravery_.” Strider went back to smiling, before continuing. “Either way, I didn’t kill him, and he asked me again what my problem was. I finally told him that I ate something that fucked up with my stomach. I remember he left and I thought he was just messing with me, but then he came back a few minutes later and handed me a bag from the pharmacy, and told me to take what was in it. Then he left for good.”

“Hm? Is that it?” Egbert asked, not seeing much of a point for Strider to hide such a random occurrence of his life.

“I’m not done yet. I’ll let you know when story time is over, OK?” Strider crossed his arms, rolling his eyes briefly before continuing. “Well, thing is, I got over my sickness, and the next day the guy was there again to ask me how was doing. I was still wary about, but I was thankful for what he did, so we hung out for a while that day, and he bought me lunch and everything. I eventually found out his name was Harley and we met almost every day for like a week or two after that.”

“Did he know about your looks?” Egbert felt the urge to ask that, just so then he wouldn’t be silent during all that.

“He didn’t have a clue. I was always sure to hide my ears and wear loose clothes when out and about, so no one would pick on my looks. It was complicated enough having to live as a stray anyway.” Strider sounded a little bit down-hearted for a moment, but regained his smile before continuing. “Although, when he did find out I was a little ‘freak’, he wanted to take me under his wing and take care of me. And I just accepted because I thought he was a really nice guy. In retrospect, I can’t help but think how things could have taken a turn for the worst, if Harley ended up being some kind of crazy child molester.” Strider chuckled to himself. He was pretty sure he would be in no problem if that was the case though. He would probably be able to cut in pieces anyone who tried anything asinine like that.

“So… you weren’t always a loner then? I mean, I take you lived with this guy for a while.” Egbert asked, kind happy that Strider felt comfortable enough to share all those things with him. It was good to know more about the other man’s past, since he always seemed so shrouded in mystery.

“ _For a while_? Well, if you think 8 years is a while.” Strider smiled widely, already expecting the look of surprise on Egbert’s face.

“E-eight years? That’s a really long time!” Egbert was agape for a while. It had downed on him that the other man had been hiding pretty much a third of his life from him, until that point.

“You bet it is. I stayed with him until I was 20 or so. He… was a really great man. And I had a lot of fun with him.” Strider’s voice changed into a rather longing tone as he spoke, his eyes drifting off somewhere. “He was a hunter, you see? And he always took me to his hunts, and we had a great time. He would let me track animals by myself and, well, that was a great thing for my non-human side. I can’t remember a time when I ate so much raw meat.”

Egbert nodded and smiled, getting up to take the plates and cutlery from the dinner to wash them, not wanting to interrupt Strider on his reminiscing, since he looked genuinely happy by remembering those things.

“He was the most important person in the world to me. And he looked after me when I needed the most, without giving a damn about my looks or my habits. I have to say, you remind me of him a lot, except he was a little bit more eccentric.” Strider looked at Egbert from the corner of his eyes, before going on. “I guess the reason why he took me in was almost the same as yours: he was a lonely guy, so I think he needed someone to lighten up his house or something.” He paused for a while, hands resting on his lap, before finally letting out the last part of his small speech. “I… truly loved him and cherished him more than anything.”

“I see… Hm… Did you and this man… I mean… when you got older… were the both of you…?” Egbert looked over his shoulder nervously, as he washed the dishes. He suddenly couldn’t build a complete sentence, even if what he wanted to ask was pretty clear on his mind.

“… Are you trying to ask me if we fucked?” Strider said calmly, not even a bit surprised when Egbert’s eyes went wide and he stared at him.

“Y-You could have used so many other expressions!” Egbert almost dropped the plate he had on his hands, cheeks flushing. Talk about a poor choice of words.

“Well, the answer is no. Our relationship wasn’t like that. He was more like my guardian or something.” Strider smiled in a rather soft and longing manner, even more thoughts of the past coming back to his mind as he continued speaking. “We never saw each other like that. We would certainly do anything for each other though, that’s for sure.”

“Anh… If you don’t mind me asking, why are you separated now?” Egbert asked, hoping that he wasn’t digging too deep into Strider’s past.

“… He… he passed away. It was years ago… But it still feels like it was yesterday.” Strider felt a stinging pain on his chest as he spoke, but did his best to keep a smile on his face, even if his voice was clearly reflecting the sudden grief he was feeling.

“Oh… I’m sorry about that…” Egbert quickly noticed the change on Strider’s voice and kind of regretted asking that.

“It’s nothing… I’m old enough to not let that get to me anymore.” Strider got up from his chair, walking to the sink and leaning on it. “Look… that was the first time in my life that I ever told anyone about my time with Harley. It feels weird… but it was really good.”

Without a real warning, Strider just put his arms around Egbert’s body, eyes closing. For some reason he felt thankful for letting all that out. He never really realized how much he needed to share that part of his life with someone else, especially someone he trusted. It was almost strange how both Harley and Egbert had things in common. Even if the way he liked that man right next to him was completely different from the way he liked Harley.

As for Egbert, he couldn’t do much but be surprised by that sudden action, kind of freezing in place for a moment before continuing to wash the dishes, a smile on his face as he just let Strider stay there and hug him for as long as he wanted. It was a bit weird and unexpected, yes, but it was kind of pleasant to receive such a random display of affection like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys still don't know how Harley died... DUN DUN DUN. /foreshadowing


	9. Offering Protection The Wrong Way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so I had one thing planned, but then this idea got too confused, and I ended up coming up with something a bit better.
> 
> Or at least I think it's better.
> 
> There are some mentions of blood and minor violence on this chapter, but it's definitely nothing too graphic. One because, this fic's rating. Second, because I am unable to write anything gory *lol*
> 
> That said, onward we go!

After the unfolding of Strider’s past, that subject was almost never brought up again. Egbert would never mention it himself out of respect for the other man’s memories, and Strider would only mention things related to his past with Harley when things reminded him too strongly about those years.

Still, Egbert got to find out that, undoubtedly, Strider’s life with that man was a quite fulfilling experience. He not only regarded Harley very highly, but it was clear in his eyes and in the way he talked that he pretty much owned that man his life. It was a quite admirable and beautiful feeling. Egbert could only imagine what a blow it was for Strider when Harley died, which was probably the reason why it took him months to actually bring up the subject.

Some days after their talk though, Strider’s behavior started to change ever so slightly. He began to stay at home more often when Egbert was there, not even bothering to go spy on the neighbors like he usually did. He also started insisting on accompanying the other man everywhere he went to, except for work.

In the beginning, Egbert thought that was just some phase Strider was going through. After all, his more ‘animalistic’ side sometimes made him act strangely and unexpectedly, so a change in his behavior wasn’t something so shocking. After a while though, his behavior seemed to grow more and more on the paranoid side, and that’s when Egbert started to get worried.

More often than not, Strider would try and persuade Egbert on staying inside, using excuses that were quite on the feeble side. And when they did go out, his eyes would scan everything around them, as if expecting something, anything, to assault them in every corner. In turn, that also made Egbert nervous, and in the end he would refrain from going out, only leaving the house when it was extremely necessary.

All things considered though, Egbert allowed that to go on for almost two full months, even if a side of him thought it wasn’t exactly healthy for Strider to worry so much like that, especially when he previously acted in such a relaxed and unperturbed way all the time.

There was a turning point though. An event that occurred and ended up forcing Egbert to confront Strider about his less than natural conduct.

It was a night like any other at their residence, and everything was going rather uneventful, with Egbert doing some paperwork and Strider reading the newspaper while sitting on the floor next to him. While at home, Strider would loosen up considerably and usually behaved the way he always did, and this was a huge relief for Egbert.

“God, this house is sooo boring sometimes.” Strider said out loud, letting out a cat-like groan at the end, resting his back against the desk behind him.

“Well, you aren’t prohibited from going out and having fun you know?” Egbert said, still focused on his papers and annotations.

“Tch… As boring as it is, I rather much prefer to stay here with you.” Strider stretched his arms, putting down the newspaper and folding his arms on top of his knees. “When are you going to finish that stupid paperwork anyway?”

“I don’t know, there’s a lot. Why are you asking?” Egbert shifted his gaze briefly from the papers to the man sitting next to him.

“I dunno. I guess I just want to, like, watch TV with you or something.” Strider shrugged before getting up. “But if you are going to just sit here and do boring shit, I guess I’ll go up and sleep. Try not to go to bed too late, OK?”

“Yes mom.” Egbert said with chuckle, as he could almost feel Strider glaring at him before walking out of the room.

Almost two hours went by when Egbert finally noticed that he should be heading to bed. Why he agreed on working on so many things at the same time was beyond him. But he didn’t care much. As long as he was able to give a comfortable life to both him and Strider, it was all worthy.

Tiptoeing upstairs and into the bedroom, he made sure to be as quite as possible to not wake up Strider, who was sleeping soundly on his mattress, despite the fact that he seemed to be tossing and turning a lot.

Laying on his bed, Egbert quickly fell asleep and the house became completely quiet.

At least for some time.

Around 3AM, Strider started waking up, slowly at first, but then his ears perked up and he sat up almost immediately, eyeing the door of the bedroom. He sniffed the air and could tell right away that something wasn’t right.

He got up and walked out of the room as quietly as possible, hiding in the darkness of the house as he began to search around, the stench permeating the air getting more and more apparent as he moved to the staircase, when his ears picked up sounds coming from the kitchen.

Felling his heart skip a beat and a hint of pain on his chest, Strider swiftly moved downstairs without a sound, reaching the front door of the kitchen and peeking inside the room. His reddish eyes fell on two men rummaging through the cabinets and drawers, putting some things inside bags while others they just discarded wherever.

With his eyes going wide and his pupils dilating considerably, he clenched his teeth and fists, before leaping into the kitchen.

The sounds of scream and glass breaking woke up Egbert with a jolt. He quickly looked around the bedroom and saw that Strider was nowhere to be seen. Almost jumping out of the bed, he rushed out of the bedroom, going downstairs while following the source of all that noise and ruckus.

When he stepped on the kitchen’s doorframe, he could barely believe the scene in front of his eyes: there was Strider, on top of one of the burglars, shirt stained with blood as he scratched and bit the man, his breathing heavy and his eyes burning with clear uncontained rage. All the while, the other robber tried to pull his partner away from Strider, only to get scratched too.

It took Egbert a few seconds to finally react, but when he finally snapped out of his minor trance he pulled Strider back by the collar of his shirt, as he desperately tried to move forward so he could continue assaulting the man.

The less harmed burglar grabbed his partner and they both escaped the house, leaving everything behind, and a trail of bloodstains on the floor. As they left, Strider kicked and squirmed trying to move away from Egbert’s grip.

“S-TOP THAT!” Egbert shouted, passing an arm around the other man’s chest, hoping that would keep him at bay. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Fuck, let me go!” Strider growled as he tried to get away, hopelessly trying to scratch and kick the man behind him.

“I’m not, if that means you are going to frigging kill those two guys.” Egbert pulled Strider into the living room, almost throwing him on the couch. “Just, what’s wrong with you?”

Strider just sat there for a moment, a bloody hand against his forehead as he tried to recollect himself. His breathing was still going fast and his heart was beating miles per hour, and the expression upon his face didn’t soften a bit. If anything, being interrupted only seemed to make him even angrier.

“Why the fuck did you stop me?” He finally asked, glaring up at the other man standing in front of him.

“Do I even need to ask? You were going to kill both of them if I didn’t.” Egbert couldn’t believe he was having that conversation.

“Why do you even care? They were trying to steal your things, and they could even end up killing you if they got to the bedroom.” Strider looked down at the bloodstains on his shirt. Maybe if he didn’t make so much noise.

“Strider, when we met you said that I was completely capable of taking care of myself without your help. I see no reason for you going into a murder spree just be-”

“People aren’t always fucking prepared, OK?” Strider said loudly, looking up at Egbert again, eyes swelling up with tears. “Even if you think you have everything under goddamn control, you don’t have!”

Egbert didn’t say anything for a long time, as he just watched Strider fight back the obvious tears building up on his eyes, before looking away and string at his lap.

“… I’m sorry. I was… I mean, when the thought of you being hurt by anyone crossed my mind I… I’m just really sorry.” Strider got up from the couch, his expression shifting from angry to disappointed as he spoke. “Look, you go to bed. I’ll clean up everything here and I’ll explain things to you later today, OK?”

“Look, if you think I’m just going to bed after you almost commit a homicide, you are terribly mistaken.” Never in his life Egbert thought that he would have that kind of conversation with anyone. But there was him, discussing with another person, the person he shared a house with, about an almost murder. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so unsettling. “I understand that you were trying to protect me and, as much as I appreciate that, I would like it even more if you didn’t have to do a bloodbath in order to achieve this.”

“… If I promise to tell you everything when you come back from work, are you going to bed?” Strider said, as if disregarding everything Egbert just told to him.

“Were you even… Alright, fine. Here, look at how much I care that my kitchen is new an horror movie scenario.” Egbert let out a sigh of frustration. He didn’t even know why he was abiding to that ridiculous request. But then again he needed to go to work early in the morning, and staying up to discuss whatever triggered that reaction from Strider wasn’t going to do him any good.

As he went upstairs, Strider let out a sigh of his own, trying to tell himself not to go after those robbers as he went into the kitchen to clean it up and make it more orderly, all the while preparing himself mentally to the conversation he would have with Egbert that night.

He was going to hate that, but for some reason he thought that he owned the other man a good explanation for snapping like that.

And he sure as hell had one.


	10. A Heartfelt Note

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exposition, exposition, tra lalalala...
> 
> But, really guys, there's a lot of exposition on this chapter. But it's important so NO SKIPPING.

The next morning Egbert woke up a lot earlier than normal. Not that he got that much of a night’s sleep to begin with. As he was laying down in bed at night he could hear Strider moving downstairs, certainly cleaning up the mess he did. A part of him was somewhat infuriated by the other man’s behavior, while the other couldn’t really be ‘mad’ at him.

After all, wasn’t he just trying to protect him?

When finally up, Egbert went downstairs and found Strider sleeping on the couch, seemingly exhausted. He was surprised to find almost everything was quite clean and organized, most of the signs from the fight that took place just a few hours earlier almost completely gone, except for a minor red spot here and there. It was probably hard work getting all that done in such a short amount of time.

Quietly preparing some coffee before leaving for work, Egbert thought it was better to leave Strider sleeping, since he wouldn’t have time to listen to whatever explanation the other man would have to give him anyway. They would have plenty of time to discuss things when he came back later that day.

And with those thoughts in mind he left, kind of preparing himself for whatever tale Strider was going to tell him when he returned.

When he returned home though, there was no sign of Strider anywhere in the house. A minor wave of panic washed over Egbert’s mind as he promptly thought that the man went after the guys who were trying to rob them.

Before he could rush out of home to look for him, he spotted a neatly folded piece of paper lying on the couch. Egbert picked it up and instantly saw that it was some sort of note addressed to him. It was rather long, but he took the time to read through all of it.

_“Egbert,_

_I owned you an explanation and that's just what I'm doing. Sorry I can't tell you all this face to face, but I don't know if I would be able to._

_First things first, I must tell you that, his eccentricities aside, you remind me of Harley far too much. He was just as nice, caring and good natured as you are, and because of that I got attached to you a lot faster than I intended to._

_And that explains my previous behavior, because I didn't want to lose you the same way I lost him._

_Harley didn't simply die back then. He was murdered._

_I remember that day as vividly as if it happened yesterday. It was late afternoon and he told me to go to the supermarket to buy him some things. I asked him if he would be fine all by himself, because I was always worried about his safety. And he laughed and said that I shouldn't worry because he had three guns on him. He always said that sensible people should carry at least three firearms on their sylladexes, no matter where they went to._

_And I believed he was safe and left._

_When I came back, just turning the corner that lead to our house already told me something was wrong. I rushed home and saw that the front gate was open.”_

At this point, the handwriting on the letter got a lot shakier and scrawly, with Egbert struggling to read some of the words in it. It was as clear as day that Strider was far from pleased to be describing that.

_“I ran inside without even thinking, with my sword in hand, but there was no need for it when I arrived. There was no one there, except for Harley, lying in a pool of blood._

_For almost an entire minute I just stood there in the hall, just staring and not quite believing that was happening. But when reality finally downed on me, I walked to him, and I remember that I just dropped to my knees, my stomach turning. I swear I thought I was going to throw up._

_I don't really know for how long I just stayed there crying while clutching to his bloodstained clothes. There was this side of me who just refused to believe he was gone, but that was the truth.”_

A few words on that part of the letter were slightly blotched, as if droplets of water have dissolved the ink, and it certainly didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

As Egbert read that, there was a somewhat heart-wrenching feeling taking over him. Even if he wasn’t involved with that situation directly, based on how Strider estimated Harley very highly, it was distressing to imagine all that.

_“Then I aimlessly started walking around our house. The guy who did that stole a bunch of Harley's hunting trophies, and almost all the money he had on the house._

_How I know it was only one guy who did that? It was because of the smell in the house._

_You know, I'm aware of the fact that every person has a unique scent to them. That's how I can identify people among crowds. And most people have nice scents. Harley always smelt of grass, mud and gunpowder. It was a bit weird, but I liked it. You kind of smell like freshly baked pastries and tobacco. And sometimes aftershave. I really enjoy it._

_But the guy who killed Harley, his scent was foul. He smelled of blood, rotting flesh and a horrible odor I could never describe. I imagine it was just how death smelt like._

_After burying Harley, I was so angry. Angry at the whole goddamn world and at myself for letting that happen. For the longest I blamed myself for what happened to him and I was so determined to seek revenge. Like, my mind was screaming and telling me to go find the fucker who did that.”_

The writing changed from shaky to strong; with the pen being pressed against the paper with such intensity that it was possible to feel the grooves of the words in it.

_“And that's what I did. I tracked down the bastard by his smell. I hunt him down like the dirty dog he was. It took me months, but I finally found the son of a bitch. His scent was unforgettable and I could barely contain myself when I first spotted him at this bar late at night._

_The fucker was laughing and drinking. It disgusted me to see him have such a great time, after what he did to Harley and God only knows how many other people. I doubt Harley was the only one. And he most definitely wasn't the last._

_My blood was boiling as I thought about that and watched him down glass after glass._

_When he left the bar I followed his drunken ass home. The moment he stepped inside I pushed him and he fell to the floor. He turned to look at me as I stood at the door. I was so fucking furious. I just wanted to rip this guy’s heart out of his chest. Wanted to make him pay for what he did._

_He asked me what I wanted and before I knew what the fuck I was doing I pierced his shoulder with my sword. He cursed and shouted at me, and I don’t even remember what he said because I was so blinded by resentment._

_I told him about Harley and that I knew he was the one who killed him. And he had the nerve to just laugh at my face and tell me why he should care about murdering some old guy._

_And after that my mind blacked out. This is the only part I can’t remember clearly in my head. But when I finally snapped out of it, I was nowhere near that guy’s house and my clothes were covered in blood and in that horrible stench of his. I definitely did a number on him, that much I can say.”_

From that point on, the writing became softer and less unstable, as Egbert stared at those words with wide eyes. He wasn’t sure if he should be scared, overwhelmed, shocked or saddened by that story.

_“After that, I wandered from city to city, without a real aim to my life. I decided to bury all those memories in the back of my mind though. I didn’t like nor want to remember those._

_But then you showed up and all these things started to resurface again, and suddenly I was caring and worrying about you just as much as I did with Harley. I just didn’t expect to get so out of control like that._

_Because of that, I don’t know if it’s good for me to stick around with you anymore. I know that you told me you enjoyed my company and I know that we were getting along fine, but I don’t think you need to shelter to someone unpredictable like me. Not to mention that I don’t want to cause you trouble by making you an ‘accomplice’ of mine if the police ever get to figure out who killed that son of a gun._

_I know it makes no sense for me to take a leave after saying that I feel the need to protect you, but I don’t want to cause you any trouble. Because you are too nice to have to deal with such a thing._

_I just want to thank you for what you did for me these past months and I hope you can understand my reasons for doing what I did.  I’m not a bad person._

_With any luck, we’ll see each other again, I guess._

_And before you start fretting, I didn’t go after those guys from last night. I know you would never forgive me if I did.”_

The letter ended just like that, without a good bye or anything similar, and Egbert wasn’t sure of what to think. One thing was right though: there was an irritating gripping feeling inside his chest as he looked around his household and saw it empty, the realization that it would stay empty like that downing on him.

Being alone in that house never felt so odd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry guys. There's still more to this story. Just hang on to your seats!


	11. The Only Thing To Make Him Nervous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY kamichaos42!
> 
> I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint and that you have a smashing b-day!
> 
> In other news, this chapter ends up quite 'suddenly', but that's only because the next one is a direct follow-up to this one, so, don't fret just now!
> 
> Have fun you guys <3

A whole week went by after Strider’s departure and it was finally clear to Egbert that the guy wasn’t coming back. And with that, he suddenly felt a bit detached from the things around him.

Going to work was a bit of a relief so he would actually see people and not think about that too much, but even there he seemed quite distant from everyone. When one of his coworkers asked him why he was being so quiet and distant those past days, he just said that ‘his cat had run away’.

The same coworker told him to try to and look for it, ask around if people had seen it. Egbert nodded with a smile, saying that he was going to do that. It was a straight out lie though. He couldn’t really do such a thing. Not in that situation. Besides, Strider left by his own free will. He couldn’t just go after him and kind of ‘beg’ for him to come back. That would be pretty pathetic.

Talk about being in a jam… But, well, he was a full grown man, right? And he was used to living alone. Sure he was missing having company, but he would get over that eventually. It would be just like before, right?

All the while, a few cities away, Strider was laying on the roof of some random house, looking up at the sky, wearing the same outfit he was when Egbert first found him, and with his eyes covered by his shades.

 _Maybe… Maybe I should go back? No, no… that’s the most retarded idea. I said I would leave him alone. I can’t go back now with my tail between my legs._ Strider sighed to himself, arms crossing. _Still… I kind of really miss him… Maybe if I kept an eye on him from the distance… Argh, no, what the fuck am I thinking?_

Strider sat up, sighing. He thought that it served him right for acting in such an impulsive way. But then again he probably wouldn’t be able to explain all those things he disclosed on that letter in person, so maybe it was for the best that he kind of ran away from that household while he could. Or at least that’s what he thought, at first.

As the days passed, he started missing Egbert far too much. He was pretty sure that wasn’t supposed to happen. In all honesty, he thought that staying away from the other man would make him forget about those ridiculous feelings of infatuation. But, lo and behold, he was wrong. To make things worse, he was pretty sure that Egbert didn’t share the same feelings. He was nice, caring and friendly, but he certainly wasn’t leaning towards having flushed feelings for him.

Trying his best to ignore the idea of coming back and those feelings, Strider tried to distract himself with a multitude of things, from hunting mice to picking pockets from distracted bystanders. Although, those distractions not always worked, and he would end up wrapping his mind around the thought of going back yet again.

Almost a month and a half went by with things going on like that. By that point, Egbert finally ended up growing used to being alone in his house again, and Strider began to fill his mind with more and more distractions and was being able to avoid almost all thoughts that involved the other man.

Then, one day, one of Egbert’s coworkers asked him if he wanted to accompany him and some other people on a vacation trip. Without anything better to do, he accepted. Maybe a change of scenery would do him good. It certainly would be more entertaining than sitting at home on his days off.

And, as if by fate, the destination of his trip was just the place where Strider was ‘living’ at the moment.

The day after his arrived, Egbert decided to take a look around the down, visit the local stores and maybe have a nice lunch. And, as he walked down one of the countless streets in the area, Strider, whom was just hanging around some nearby café, picked up a familiar scent in the air.

 _Wait, is that… Not, it can’t be._ He turned to look and, instantly, he recognized Egbert on the other side of the street, window shopping and mindlessly walking down the street. Strider did his best to stay hidden, his mind panicking for a moment. _Shit, shit… he’s here. How is he here? Is he looking for me? No, doesn’t look like. But why the fuck is he here?_

Breathing in and out deeply, Strider thought it was time to move to another town and avoid any sort of embarrassing encounter between the two of them. At the same time, he just wanted to cut that out and go talk to the other man, simply tell him how much he liked him and appreciated his company, and how much he missed him those past weeks.

 _No, I’m not going to go after him like some silly teenager in love._ Strider let out a sigh of frustration. It was really hard keeping his cool while trying to hold back such strong feelings.

Although, even after he decided not to talk to Egbert, Strider was almost always where he was, keeping an eye on him. At some point he thought about just how creepy it was for him to be stalking the other man like that. What kind of attitude was that anyway? That was, without a shadow of doubt, the most immature way to deal with that situation, but that was exactly what he was doing.

By going with that plan, he found out which day Egbert was going to leave to return home. Strider started thinking if he should go talk to him before he was gone. Maybe that would be his last opportunity to do that. He was pretty sure he would never forgive himself if he did that.

So, on the last day, Strider did his best to find a way to sneak inside the hotel where Egbert was staying. It wasn’t such a hard task, thanks to his speed, and soon enough he was entering Egbert’s room through the window. He heard sounds coming from the bathroom and, with a smile, he tiptoed to the door, and was elated to find out Egbert had his back turned to it.

Approaching the other man, Strider’s smile widened, before putting out both index fingers and poking Egbert right under the ribs. He stepped back quickly when the other man yelped and jumped in place, quickly turning around, eyes widening as soon as his gaze fell on Strider just standing there, near the door frame.

“Surprise! I’m pretty sure you didn’t expect to see m-” Strider couldn’t finish his sentence though, thanks to a punch that landed on right side of his face, which almost made him lose balance and fall flat on his ass.

“JUST WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?” Egbert shouted, paying no mind to his vocabulary. “Sneaking inside my room like some kind of thief!”

“He-hey! Calm the fuck down will you? That’s no way to greet a friend you know?” Strider gritted his teeth, rubbing the side of his face. If he didn’t have such a high resistance, he would be on the floor.

"Do you have any idea of how worried I was? Like, I leave home and you are there but when I come back you just vanished!" Egbert said, giving a step forward while poking Strider's chest with his index finger.

"I... I'm sorry I did that but I had my reasons." Strider gave a step back, now almost completely out of the bathroom. He never ever saw Egbert looking so infuriated like that, and for a moment he thought that getting into his room was a really bad idea. "If you read the letter I left you, you would know."

"I did. Look, I'm sorry about what happened." Egbert's face softened a little, arms crossing in front of his chest. "But did you really have to run away?" He asked, walking to leave the bathroom, passing by Strider and going to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Yes I had to. I'm not very good at talking about that." Strider tried his best to smile at that, cheek still sore. "I... guess I kind of panicked when I thought about the possibility of you getting mad at me because of that."

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter how you told me. What matters is that at least you trust me enough to do so." Egbert said, eyes constantly fixed on Strider, while the other man kept looking away.

"If you... I mean if you want to turn me in to the police I'll totally understand." Strider's smile faded from his lips as he spoke, eyes drifting to gaze at the floor.

Egbert stayed in silence for a while, not really expecting the other man to say such a thing. He was even more surprised by the visibly sincere tone of his voice. It was so rare for Strider to talk like that.

“Look, I’m not calling the cops on you. You told me when we met that you already had trouble enough with your looks and you didn’t need a criminal record to help.” Egbert said, and Strider just looked up at him, a look of complete surprise on his face. That was a new thing for Egbert. He never imagined that something could faze that guy.

The reason for that though, inside Strider’s mind, it was due to the fact that he actually didn’t expect Egbert to remember something he told him months ago. He never really expected his words to be taken into consideration so much like that. It had been a while since that happened.

All the while, Egbert tried not to think about Strider’s reaction too much and instead just continued talking. “Besides, I doubt the police would put you on a regular jail, all things considered.”

“Man, you are so fucking nice, it’s hard to believe you are for real.” Strider scratched the side of his neck, the look of surprise on his face now long gone. “Anyway, a promise is a promise and if I said I wasn't going to bother you anymore, that's what I'm doing. I just dropped by because I wanted to see you before you left..." Strider smiled to Egbert in a rather sad way, his fists tightening a little.

"Wait, I thought you were going to come back with me." Egbert spoke louder than he intended to, looking rather disgruntled about that. Why go through all that conversation if he they were going to go separate ways anyway?

"Look, if I said I was going to leave you be, that's what I'll do. There’s just one thing I still need to do though..." Strider stopped talking and, when Egbert was about to ask what the hell Strider meant with all that, before he knew it he was pressed against the mattress, wrists being held by the side of his body, a leg between his.

And he was being kissed.

There was a reaction of shock inside Egbert’s brain as he felt the urge to push Strider away and just ask what the ever living fuck was going on. Admittedly, he was more confused by the nonsensical train of thoughts and actions from Strider than by the kiss itself, because, honestly, that wasn’t even that much of a kiss and more like their lips were pressed together, as Strider seemed to have frozen in a place. Egbert quickly took notice of how the other man’s heartbeat was far too strong for his own good, because he could almost feel it by just having Strider’s chest pressed against his.

Strider would never say it out loud, but he was positively terrified about that whole thing, until he  finally moved, backing away a bit, hands still holding on to Egbert’s wrists, as he looked down at him from behind his shades.

“I’m sorry.” He said, smiling awkwardly before getting up. Deep inside, he felt bad for being such a hassle in Egbert’s life, and that he just went there to disturb him even more. And for some reason he felt sorry about developing such feelings for the other man and for making him worry about him. And, for him, the best course of action was to leave all that alone to avoid any kind of disappointing behavior on his end.

When he was already standing and turning to leave though, he was pulled by one of his wrists and fell sitting on the bed, eyes quickly darting at Egbert as he frowned. _What the fuck is he doing anyway?_ Was the first thought to cross Strider’s mind.

“You are terrible kisser, you know?” Egbert smiled a bit as he saw Strider’s eyes widen. That was the second time that happened in a matter of minutes and he would be lying if he said that wasn’t amusing.

“F-Fuck you! Now just let go off my wrist, OK?” Strider pulled his hand, and it was happy that Egbert let go of him easily. Crossing his arms, he just stayed there sitting on the edge of the bed, letting out a sigh of both frustration and mild irritation.

Egbert just sat up on the edge of the bed as well, arms resting on his thighs as he slouched forward a bit, not being able to fight how amused he was, the feeling translating into a smile.

There was a long silence between the two of them, with Strider only staring at the floor while Egbert waited to see what he was going to do next. He was honestly expecting him to just get up and leave from the same window he came in. But that never happened. Instead, he just heard Strider breath in and out deeply, before finally speaking.

“I… I love you.”


	12. And the Only Thing to Make Him Happy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And lo, here's were our magical journey comes to an end. Yep, I really wrote 12 chapters revolving solely around this stupid cliche thing. Can you believe it?
> 
> And can you believe it it actually got popular? ME NEITHER!
> 
> So, here's where everything gets wrapped, and we ride into the sunset proudly and... OK, I'm going to shut up now. There's more babbling at the 'ending notes' of this last chapter, if you are interested.

Egbert was far from ‘surprised’ by those words, leaning back a little before speaking. “You know, this isn’t exactly a _shocking_ revelation.” He rested his hands on the edge of the bed, looking at Strider by the corner of his eyes.

"You don't understand." Now it was Strider's turn to slouch forward, doing his best to smile a little. "You are the second person, in all these years that I genuinely cared for. Since being with Harley I never really felt anything for anyone. I never really bothered with other people." He closed his eyes, feeling his body tense. "But I really care for you and the only thing I want is to be with you... I know this sounds really fucking corny, but that's the truth."

Strider's eyes snapped open and his ears stiffened when he felt a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't dare looking to the side to face Egbert. That whole situation was so unnatural to him that he had no clue on how to act or what to do. He hated admitting he was lost like that, but there was no denying it and the things he was saying and doing were a clear indication of that.

"I've heard cheesier lines, don't worry." Egbert was highly amused by that. He always thought it was impossible for Strider to be embarrassed or nervous, since he was always trying to act so cool, but there was him, all tense and jumpy about something that shouldn't be such a big deal. Or at least that's how Egbert saw it, even if he could understand how strange it was for Strider to feel any sort affection towards someone after so many years.

Trying to feel more relaxed, even if only a little, Strider took another long and deep breath, thinking of what to say next. Maybe he should just get the hell out of that place before he ended up adding even more tacky lines to that conversation. But his line of thought stopped when Egbert began talking again.

“Aren’t you a little bit old to get so nervous about something like that?” Egbert said in a joking tone, trying to make the other man feel more at ease.

“Oh, sure, rub it in my face that I’m acting like an idiot, because I certainly couldn’t see it myself.” Strider rolled his eyes, finally turning to look at Egbert. “I’m sorry I can’t be a smooth operator when speaking openly about my feelings.”

“C’mon, don’t act in such a bitter way.” Egbert moved the hand he had resting on Strider’s shoulder to the back of one of his ears and started to scratch it.

“Wa-wait! Don’t… don’t go doing this now! This is a serious…” Strider briefly lost focus of whatever point he was trying to get across, feeling his shoulders relax and the beginning of a purring sound form in the back of his throat. Although, he soon regained control over his mind and pushed Egbert’s hand away, pulling his hood over his head to cover his ears. “That was such a cheap trick. I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you.”

“Oh, you don’t want me to do this?” Egbert asked, maneuvering his hands to pull down Strider’s hood and reach for his ears once again, petting the both of them.

“T-That’s… that’s exactly…” Strider’s mind quickly lost its focus again, as he felt his body relax and his eyes close, the purring coming back as he suddenly had no interest in pushing Egbert away like he did before.

“There. Are you feeling less jumpy now?” Egbert stopped the scratching and rested his hands on his lap, smiling.

Strider let out a sigh before opening his eyes, the purring diminishing but still there. “Say, Egbert… Why do you even put up with all my bullshit like that? I mean, how are you even talking to me after all those things I told you?” He asked, smiling a little bit hesitantly, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer to that.

“I don’t really know. I guess that’s because you are probably the most exciting thing to happen to me in years.” Egbert said, with a shrug. He didn’t really mind much of the things that Strider did, because they were harmless, for the most part.

By his own free-will, he chose to ‘ignore’ that incident from Strider’s past. Not because he thought it was the right thing to do, but because he understood the reasons behind what he did. After all, the person he cared for the most – and probably the only one that cared for him in return – was taken away from him in a rather brutal manner. And considering Strider’s instincts, it would be expected of him to react like that in retaliation.

“It’s really incredible how you put with so much crap just to have a distraction.” Strider leaned back, a tentative smile appearing on his lips.

“It’s not just ‘a distraction’. Did you honestly forget what I said to you a couple of months ago? For someone who’s in love you are really inconsider-” Egbert’s words were cut short by another attempt at a kiss from Strider, fingers gripping on his shoulders as he was pushed back to lay on the bed.

That time around though, Strider showed way more determination, even a little bit of impatience, his tongue darting to meet Egbert’s in a rather sloppy way, almost as if he didn’t have much of a clue of what he was doing, teeth nibbling on the other man’s lips a little bit too strongly.

Egbert wasn’t even sure if he liked Strider _that_ way, but, aside from the fact that a kiss is just a kiss, it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t a bit smitten by that.

The overall feeling of that kiss was a bit on the odd side. Strider’s tongue was a lot drier and coarser than one would expect. That was clearly thanks to his cat-related features. But, those things didn’t make the kiss really that bad. In fact, there was a certain sensation of novelty to all that. One that Egbert really couldn’t put aside and ignore.

Less than half a minute passed when Strider moved away, eyes staring down at the man under him, his hands still griping on his shoulders. “You wanna know some embarrassing shit?” He asked, grinning like usual. “That was the first time I kissed someone. That’s really fucking sad now that I think about it.”

“If it’s any consolation you are the first man to ever kiss me.” Egbert wasn’t really sure if that was the sort of thing Strider expected to hear right after that, but it was the truth.

“Well, lucky me then.” Strider said, his fingers relaxing considerably as he moved to rest his head on Egbert’s chest. They stayed in silence for quite some time, just laying there, with the only sound cutting through the silence coming from Strider’s purring in response to Egbert petting the back of his ears again.

Strider just wanted to stay like that forever and ever, laying down comfortably with Egbert, inhaling that nice sweet scent from him and not having to worry about a thing. Those made him feel so satisfied and comfortable, and it was almost hard to believe such a thing was happening.

He was almost drifting to sleep thanks to the caressing of his ears when he heard Egbert call his name, and he answered with an ‘hm?’ wondering what he had to say.

“I think it’s safe to assume you are going to come back with me, right?” He asked, kind of half expecting Strider to be stubborn again and start once again with all that talk about how he didn’t want to ‘bother’ him.

“I… Yeah, I’m going to go back with you, if you want that so badly.” Strider moved to sit on the bed, finally taking off his shades. There wasn’t really much of a point on keeping them on while around Egbert.

“If _I_ want that? OK, I’ll pretend you aren’t itching to go back yourself.” Egbert sighed, getting up from the bed and walking to his bag while looking out the window. “Either way, it’s getting late and I need to be up tomorrow to get the bus back home.” He started digging through his clothes, trying to find his pajamas.

“Well, I hope you want my company then, because there’s no way in hell that I’m sleeping in the streets again tonight.” Strider said, frowning a bit. That past month and a half was pure hell. He forgot just how bad it was to live like a stray after staying inside a comfortable house for so long.

“As long as you behave…” Egbert said, picking up his clothes and going to the bathroom to change, closing the door behind him.

“Why, I’m offended that you think I’m going to do anything bad.” Strider smirked to himself, walking to the bathroom door and crouching next to it, one eye aligning with the keyhole.

“I know you are trying to peek through the door Strider. Stop it.” Egbert said from the other side of the door, what made Strider turn around and chuckle to himself, sitting on the flor and leaning on the door

“Man, can you loosen up for more than five minutes?” Strider ran his hands through his hair, putting his head back.

“No. You are relaxed enough for the both of us.”

When Egbert stepped out of the bathroom, Strider was already laying under the sheets in one side of the double bed, eyes closed. If he was already sleeping or just attempting to fall asleep, Egbert didn’t know. He just turned off the lights and went to sleep on the free side of the bed, both of them laying back to back.

“Good night Strider.” Egbert said, but he got no verbal response from the other man. Instead, he just felt him move on the bed and, soon, one of Strider’s arms was around his waist and his forehead was pressed against his back.

In silence, he decided that it was better for the both of them to just go to sleep. He probably would have to have to get used to those random displays of affection, but he didn’t mind that at all. In fact, it felt good to be needed like that, after years of solitude.

Maybe he _did_ like Strider _that_ way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's how it goes folks.
> 
> First and foremost, I want to thank you all for giving this fic such amazing and awesome feedback. I almost can't believe people got so involved into something that was meant to be rather silly and unimportant.
> 
> Now, I can't forget about the amazing and gorgeous flahyredturk down at tumblr, because it was his art that started all this and OH GOSH, this is my most successful thing in the fandom as of yet, so, I need to thank him ENDLESSLY for sparking this idea on my head! I sure hope you enjoyed this thing and that I, hm, kind of did what you were expecting? I mean, all this was more on lesson your behalf, so, yeah.
> 
> Oh, yeah, and oh Gosh, 0dalesque, my dear, whenever I think about all the great fanart you did for this, I just can't words. It just makes me all emotional when I think about this and I'm forever grateful about the fact that you took the time to make art for this fic and I... Oh gosh, I don't even know.
> 
> As for the people who bookmarked, gave kudos or just read the fic, I'm happy that I was able to give you all something at least a bit entertaining <3
> 
> Last but not least, there's still one thing left for me to do regarding this fic: write an extra one-shot fic connected to this whole thing that deals with ALL THE SMUT. Because I just simply can't escape this. Said smut is already in the works and will be posted here as soon as humanly possible.
> 
> One last time, thank you, and I hope that I can do another in-chapters thing that get you guys excited again!


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